The Lychee Tree
by Incidental Vegan Cannibal
Summary: Ten years after Avatar Korra's disappearance and the One-Week War, Chairman Tarrlok has taken Jinora and Ikki as his wives. When the sisters uncover their husband's darkest secret, they decide to take matters into their own hands and restore balance to the world. Major character death, dubcon, noncon, domestic violence, Stockholm syndrome, gore/violence. Tarrlok/Harem, Pema/Asami.
1. Chapter 1

"Here we are," the tailor said. She brushed dust off a folded red gown.

Ikki sneezed and flew backwards several feet, knocking over a rack of dresses. "It's so dusty in here," she complained, rubbing the back of her head. "I guess the economic problems are worse than my teacher said."

Jinora finally looked up from her book. "Chairman Tarrlok is improving the city's economy by creating jobs and protecting us from radical Equalist terrorists," she recited blandly for the third time in as many days. "Also, you'd better not let him catch you airbending in public, Ikki."

"I won't," Ikki said, righting a mannequin clad in a purple qipao. "Do I really have to call him 'chairman' even after I marry him?"

"As long as we're in front of anyone but the servants," Jinora replied. "You don't have to call him that in bed, if that's what you're asking."

The tailor made a choking noise, and Ikki giggled nervously as she climbed back on the pedestal.

"Is it even legal to marry two girls at the same time?" Ikki asked. Her tongue was itching to say everything on her mind; nervousness always seemed to drive her finishing school manners right out of her mind. "I feel like it's not legal, so it's kind of setting a bad example for everyone if Chairman Tarrlok breaks the law. But even if it is allowed, it seems really stupid and kind of morally wrong to me, especially if the other person is your sister, because at least if the other person wasn't your sister you could pretend like you're married to them too but I don't even get that and when we have kids it's going to be really awkward to explain our family to them and-" she paused for breath and realized she didn't have anything else to say.

"Are you finished?" Jinora asked.

"I think so."

"Chairman Tarrlok makes the laws, so he can have two wives if he wants," Jinora said. "I read that men used to marry their wife's sisters all the time. And it could be a lot worse. At least we're together again."

Ikki smiled at that. "I know, isn't it great? I missed you so much after you left finishing school and got married, but thinking about seeing you again got me through most of Miss Chan's history classes."

"I liked Miss Chan's classes," Jinora said. "She always assigned interesting books."

Ikki made a face at the mirror. "Her books had too much fighting and war in them. I only like books with beautiful, happy romances in them."

"Chairman Tarrlok has some of those in his library." Jinora opened her book and started reading again. "I'll try to find some for you when we get home."

"Thanks, Jinora!" Ikki beamed. "You're the best sister a girl could ask for."

"Stop fidgeting," the tailor said, stabbing a pin into the dress she'd pulled over Ikki's head. "Your wedding is next week."

Ikki sighed heavily and went into book-on-head mode, standing still and straight as a statue. If there was one thing she'd learned in finishing school, it was how to act like an obedient little housewife.


	2. Chapter 2

Ikki stared at the ceiling, twisting her nightgown in her sweaty hands. She was getting married _tomorrow_, she was getting married to her sister's husband, and she was getting married to someone she hadn't seen since he'd killed her father ten years earlier. She wasn't completely sure how she felt about it, but she knew she didn't like the idea at all.

There was a knock on her door. She hopped up and opened it, expecting to see another servant.

"I brought some hot chocolate," Jinora said, holding up a tray with two mugs. "I was hoping we could talk, now that the wedding planner is finally gone."

"Sure!" Ikki closed her door and joined her older sister on the couch by the window.

"Be careful," Jinora warned. "It's pretty hot."

Ikki swirled air into both of the cups, stirring them with a loop of one finger. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked.

"Whatever you want to talk about," Jinora said. "I remember lying awake the night before my wedding and wishing I had someone to talk to. I wrote a dozen angsty letters to you, but I burned them just like Tarrlok made me burn all the others I've wanted to send you over the years. The worst part of the wedding is waiting for it."

"You must have been so scared when you got married," Ikki said, giving her sister an admiring glance. "You were all alone and you didn't know what to expect or anything!"

The rhythm of Jinora's breathing seemed to change. "It was scary," she admitted. "I cried a lot before my wedding. But I did at least know what to expect on my wedding night, thanks to books and servants."

"Oh!" Ikki hadn't even thought of that. "Tell me, tell me! Please, Jinora?"

"Okay," Jinora agreed. "What do you already know about sex?"

"'When two people love each other a lot, they do a special hugging ritual to unblock their chakras,'" Ikki quoted her dad. "'Sometimes they do the ritual to make a baby, and sometimes they just do it to make each other feel good.' That's everything I know."

Jinora groaned. "Please tell me you're joking."

"I was seven when Dad died and Mom went to jail," Ikki reminded her. "I've been at 'boarding school' for the past, like, ten years, and they didn't exactly teach us about this stuff."

"Okay, let's start with the basics," Jinora said. She opened her satchel and produced a large book with a navy cover. "You bleed every month, right?"

Ikki nodded.

"That blood comes from your womb when you aren't pregnant," Jinora explained. She flipped through her book and settled on a dog-eared page. "There's a passage inside you that leads to your womb. The man puts this part-" She pointed to a drawing. "-inside that passage and plants the seeds that can start a baby. The baby grows inside you until it's big enough to swallow on its own and keep itself warm, and when that happens, it comes back out through this same passage. And that's the basics. Any questions?"

"Does it hurt?" Ikki asked.

"Which part?"

"The sex part. I know having a baby hurts."

Jinora closed the book. "Sex only hurts a little. You just have to meditate and relax your muscles. It will hurt a lot if you let yourself think about exactly who is on top of you and why, so don't do that. I like to think about a good book."

Ikki pondered that. "How long does it take?"

"I don't know," Jinora said. "Sometimes five minutes, sometimes an hour. It's faster if you cry, but I haven't been able to cry since..." she trailed off, staring into her cup, and never finished the sentence.

"So how come you don't have a baby yet?" Ikki asked after a moment.

"I drink a special tea," Jinora whispered, some of the life coming back to her face. "I'll make it for you, too, if you want. You can't tell Tarrlok, though."

Ikki leaned closer to her sister. "Why not?"

"He thinks I'm barren," Jinora said. "And that's what I want him to keep thinking. It'll be even better if you drink the tea as well. If Tarrlok can't impregnate either of his healthy teenage wives, the public will start thinking he's impotent. It's not a lot, but maybe it would be enough to weaken his reign of terror on the city."

"You're so smart, Jinora," Ikki said. "I wish I could think like you do."

"And I wish I was as happy as you," Jinora said. "You smile so easily, even in this damn house. If I couldn't escape this horrible nightmare by reading, I would have run away or killed myself already."

"Don't talk like that!" Tears prickled Ikki's eyes. "I'd be lost or dead or crazy without you, Jinora! Even when you were far away, the things you taught me in school really helped me. You're the only reason I seem happy here!"

Jinora hugged her, careful not to slosh hot cocoa on the nightshirt. "I know," she said. "It's just stressful when everyone's lives depends on you. I don't know what your 'engagement letter' said, but mine was full of polite threats."

"Mine just said that I would be marrying him," Ikki said. "It was very matter-of-fact. I guess he thought I was too stupid to argue with a letter like that from the chairman, and he was probably right. I don't have any job prospects. I don't have anywhere else to go, and if I did I don't know if I would leave my entire family to go there."

"I had planned on running away," Jinora said. "I had everything all set up. I was going to travel the world and recruit people for a rebellion. And then I got that letter, and I selfishly decided that my family was more important than everyone else."

"That's okay," Ikki said. "That's the normal thing to do! Anyone would choose that."

Jinora just shook her head and stared sadly out the window. Ikki snuggled her head against her sister's shoulder. They sat in silence until Ikki started yawning uncontrollably.

"I should let you sleep," Jinora said. She kissed Ikki on the cheek and took her mug. "You'll do fine tomorrow, Ikki. You're really good at following instructions, and that makes life go a lot smoother around here. Sleep tight."


	3. Chapter 3

That night, Ikki dreamt of Air Temple Island and her mother's soft hands and voice.

"Come on, Ikki. Time to wake up." Her mother's voice tickled through her dream like a feather.

Ikki smiled in her sleep. "Meditation time?"

"No, time to get you ready for your wedding."

"What?" Ikki stopped smiling and opened her eyes.

Her mother knelt over her, her face thinner and more wrinkled than Ikki remembered it. Her brown hair had gotten more white, too.

"Mom!" Ikki sat straight up and hugged her mother's neck tightly. "I missed you so much!"

Mom returned the hug, rubbing Ikki's back through the nightshirt. "You've gotten so big, Ikki," she said. "You're practically a full-grown woman. I guess I expected you to still be a little girl." Her voice was thick, like she was trying not to cry.

Emotional restraint had never been Ikki's strong point; tears of happiness were already spilling onto the shoulder of her mother's blossom-pink dress. "I wanted to talk to you so many times! I wrote you letters but then I didn't know where to send them and then they fell in a puddle and I was too busy to rewrite them. How are Meelo and the baby? I guess the baby is like, ten by now, and I don't even know its name! How did you get out of jail? Are you out of jail forever or just for today? Are you going to live here with me and Jinora? Will Meelo live here too?"

"That's my Ikki," Mom laughed. "Eat so I can answer your questions."

She handed Ikki a bowl of noodles. Ikki took the chopsticks and began slurping, eyes glued to Mom like she might disappear if Ikki blinked.

"Meelo is fine," Mom said. "He'll be at the wedding later, in fact. I sent letters to your school, but I suppose Chairman Tarrlok thought they would have distracted you. The baby was stillborn. You would have had a little brother."

Ikki stopped eating. "That's so sad! No one even told me. I would have liked to have known that."

"Didn't Jinora tell you?" Mom asked.

"No," Ikki said. "I guess I didn't think to ask. She probably thought I knew. I've been so busy since I got here last week, I haven't had a chance to ask her a lot of questions, especially in private."

"I know." Mom brushed Ikki's hair out of her eyes. "I called here three times this past week, and you were always gone."

"I'm so glad it's almost over," Ikki said. "But I'm really sorry that the baby died! I remember putting my hands on your stomach and feeling him kick and thinking he was going to be a really amazing airbender. It's hard to believe he never got to be anyone. How did it happen?"

"I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't get to the hospital because of the riots," Mom said. "A lot of people died that day."

For once, Ikki didn't have anything to say. She remembered 'That Day' better than she remembered yesterday. She remembered standing frozen and barefoot on cold cobblestones, warm blood creeping between her toes. She remembered the way Dad and Chief Bei Fong had twitched in pain on the ground, and how the blood leaking from their eyes had looked like they were crying red. She remembered Jinora grabbing her hand and yanking it so hard Ikki's arm had almost popped out of the socket, remembered peeking out the clock shop window and seeing the rioters trample Dad's body. Ikki gave her bowl back to Mom.

"So how did you get out of jail?" she asked, hoping to make the conversation less depressing.

"I'm not exactly a prisoner," Mom said. "I just took the day off." She smiled at Ikki's confused look. "I take care of the police officers. Chairman Tarrlok wanted to make us an example of his mercy towards repented Equalists."

"Us?" Ikki asked.

"Pema?" A woman with wavy black hair appeared in the doorway. "Are you in here?"

It took Ikki a moment to recognize the lady. "Asami? Is that you?"

"Good morning," Asami smiled, not quite making eye contact with Ikki. She was dressed in the same style of sleeveless, close-fitting dress as Mom, but Asami's was dark burgundy and gold. "How's our little bride?"

"Nervous," Ikki said. "How have you been, Asami?"

"It could be worse," Asami said. "That's what your mother tells me, anyways. Personally, I don't see how, but I try not to tempt the universe anymore." She took a faltering step forward, and Mom rushed to take her outstretched hand.

"I thought Ama was going to walk you here," Mom said.

"She did, but I thought I could navigate the house on my own," Asami said. "I guess I'm not as familiar with it as I thought." She let Mom lead her into the light, and Ikki got a better look at the woman.

"Asami!" Ikki gasped. "What happened to your eyes?"

"I was having trouble not glaring at my clients," Asami said. Her voice was as bitter as the arugula at Ikki's finishing school. "Tarrlok decided to remove the temptation for me. As an added bonus, he never has to worry about me wandering too far from home."

The noodles Ikki had just finished churned around in her stomach. "But he didn't take your eyes out!" Ikki said. "Maybe a healer could fix them?"

"We've tried every healer in the city," Mom said quietly.

"He left my 'pretty green eyes' intact so my clients could enjoy looking at them, but they don't work anymore," Asami said. "Fucking bloodbending. One minute I was glaring at Tarrlok, the next I was blind."

"What does glaring look like?" Ikki asked, her chin trembling. "Do you think he'll do that to me, too?"

"Not likely," Asami laughed. "I imagine his prized airbending wives will be very well protected. You're much more valuable than an indentured whore for his police force."

Ikki didn't know a lot about sex, but she had a vague idea of what the word 'whore' meant. "Mom?" Ikki tried to catch her mother's eye. "About what you said earlier, about taking the day off-"

"Shh, Ikki." Mom draped undergarments over the foot of the bed. "This is supposed to be a happy day. Let's not talk about anything that might make it harder for you to smile. Oh, good, there's the water. Sit in the chair, little love."

A servant set a basin of steaming water in front of the chair, and Ikki situated herself in the seat. Mom helped Asami onto a small footstool near Ikki's feet. The way their lips curved up when their hands met reminded Ikki of the way her parents used to act towards each other.

"How did you like your school?" Asami asked, picking up one of Ikki's feet.

"It was school, I guess," Ikki said. She involuntarily kicked her foot as Asami tried to scrub the sole with a pumice. "Hee! Sorry."

"It's okay," Asami said. "You know, I went to finishing school myself. It wasn't my favorite place to be, but I had friends. Do you miss yours?"

Ikki shrugged. "I had a lot of 'friends', but I wasn't close enough to any of them to miss them. Everyone got kind of weird towards me when Jinora got her engagement letter."

"I understand." Asami scrubbed rough skin off of Ikki's heel. "It took me a while to make friends. Everyone assumed I would be stuck up because of my father's money. Maybe you'll make some new friends here in Republic City."

Ikki smiled. "Honestly, I'm pretty happy with just meeting back up with old friends. Ten years is a long, long time to be away from your home."

Mom combed Ikki's hair while without commenting on the converation. Part of the hair was still damp from Ikki's bath the night before, so it stayed pinned better than usual. Ikki chattered away about finishing school and Fire Nation fashions and wedding traditions, glad to have Asami's undivided attention. She couldn't tell if Asami was really interested in what she was saying or just super polite.

When the conversation finally died down, Mom cleared her throat. "There are some things I need to tell you," she said. "After you get married, Chairman Tarrlok will take you to the bridal bed. Do you understand what that means, what happens then?"

Ikki nodded. "Jinora told me," she said.

"It might hurt your first few times," Mom cautioned. "Try to pretend he's a cute boy your own age. Think of something romantic."

"Or think about driving cars," Asami suggested. "I still dream about driving every time I have a client."

Ikki went quiet again, turning over everything in her mind. It made her stomach feel woozy to think about Asami having 'clients', much less Mom. And she was getting anxious trying to figure out what she should think about in the bridal bed, since she didn't care much for books, hadn't seen a boy her own age in years, and had never driven a car. She suddenly realized that Asami would never get to drive again, except in her head while she was with clients, and Ikki burst into tears.

"What's the matter, Little Ikki?" Mom asked, rubbing Ikki's shoulders.

"I don't want to marry him," she sobbed. "I... I don't think I'm ready to be a woman yet, and he's the last person I think I would want to marry, and, and-"

"I know," Mom said quietly. "I know. I'm sorry, Ikki."

"Hey, Ikki," Asami said. She sat up straight and put one hand on her hip, exactly the way Ikki remembered.

"What?" Ikki asked through her tears.

"Have you seen Tarrlok without his shirt on?" Asami asked.

Ikki shook her head.

"Me neither, but I hear he braids his chest hair into three ponytails, too."

The mental image was so funny that Ikki started laughing and crying at the same time. "Really?" she asked.

"Don't fill her head with lies, Asami," Mom chided, but she was grinning too, trying not to laugh. "He shaves his chest hair. It's the hair around his privates that he keeps in three ponytails."

They all covered their mouths to keep from howling at that. Even as she laughed, Ikki realized she wouldn't have guessed that boys got hair down there too. Still, Mom's joke was too funny to let her start crying again.

The door slid open, and the three women jumped in surprise.

"Not so loud," Jinora said, closing the door behind her. "Tarrlok is starting to wake up."

The room went completely silent for a moment at her announcement.

"He's here?" Ikki whispered.

"When did he get in?" Mom asked.

"Late last night," Jinora said. "I was already asleep."

"Damn," Asami muttered. "You were right, Pema. Looks like I'll be serving Lao Stinky-Feet next time."

"I told you, his 'business trips' are to help him stay pleasant in his public life," Mom said. "He wouldn't jeopardize his image by missing his own wedding."

"That's my theory, too," Jinora said. "He was in a good mood last night, so let's hope he got out all his anger problems on his trip."

"That's good news for you," Asami said, patting Ikki's leg. "He doesn't seem so bad when he's trying to charm you."

Ikki nodded, then realized Asami couldn't see. "Thanks."

A wooden floorboard creaked in the hall, and the room fell dead silent again. The door started to slide open, and Ikki gasped without meaning to. Asami squeezed Ikki's ankle comfortingly.

Jinora leapt up and grabbed the door, keeping it from opening any further. She stood in the gap between the door and the frame, blocking Ikki from seeing anything.

"She's not ready yet," Jinora said, her fingers firmly curled around the door.

"I assumed that much," said a deep voice. "Has anyone prepared the bridal bed?"

"Yes, Mom set it earlier this week," Jinora said.

"Very well. I'll see you at the ceremony."

Jinora stood on her tiptoes for a quick kiss, and Ikki caught a glimpse of long, unbrushed brown hair on the other side of the door.

"See you there," Jinora murmured. As soon as the door was closed, she wiped her mouth on her gold silk robe.

Ikki couldn't stand it anymore. "Am I the only one who thinks it's really weird that me and Jinora are going to be married to the same man at the same time?"

"No," Asami said. "We're just used to Tarrlok doing weird stuff. We don't question it as much anymore."

Mom set the headdress on Ikki's head. "Just smile and pretend to be happy," she said.

"I don't know if I can," Ikki despaired.

"Whenever you start to feel sad, just think about Tarrlok's hidden ponytails," Asami suggested.

"And how Meelo is probably next on Tarrlok's list of people to marry," Jinora said dryly.

Ikki giggled and nodded, tassles swinging around her face. "And I'll think about how happy I am to be back with my family again."

Mom and Jinora hugged her carefully, and Asami rubbed Ikki's leg.


	4. Chapter 4

Everyone kept saying that the wedding was lovely, especially for a second wife. Ikki's only impression of it was clanging gongs, sweaty hands, and a table laden with dead animals. She sat in a daze, a smile plastered on her face as people she'd never met offered her red envelopes.

"That's her." Jinora's voice drifted in Ikki's direction. "Do you remember her?"

Ikki tilted her head to the right and saw her sister standing with her arm around the shoulders of a teenaged boy with brown hair. His arms and legs seemed a little too long for his body, and he tried to slouch behind Jinora when he caught Ikki looking at him.

"Meelo?" she mouthed.

Jinora nodded and pushed the boy forward. Ikki rose and pulled her baby brother into a hug.

"Um, hi, I-Ikki," Meelo stammered into her sleeve.

Ikki was dying to find out he had been up to and if he would come visit again, but she didn't trust herself not to burst into noisy tears, so she didn't say anything.

"Meelo's been at boarding school in the Earth Kingdom," Jinora said. "He comes here for holidays."

"And weddings," Meelo spoke up.

"Right," Jinora said. "He's only staying for today, but he'll be back at harvest time."

Ikki clutched Meelo tightly until Jinora gently pried her fingers away. Before Ikki could get upset in public, Tarrlok returned to her side. She quickly looked down at her red slippers. Married or not, she wasn't quite ready to stare into his face yet.

"Such a respectful wife," he said quietly enough that only she could hear it. "Thank you for being so well-behaved." He stroked her cheek with one thick finger, and Ikki struggled not to shudder.

"Thank you for your kind words," she said, matching his softness.

"Are you bored with this party, dear?"

Ikki shrugged.

Tarrlok looped his arm through hers. "Esteemed guests," he said above the collective murmur, "we are most appreciative of your presence at our wedding. I need to take my tired little bride to bed now, but feel free to keep enjoying the party."

Ikki bowed stiffly to the room, her stomach trying to escape through her throat. Most people smiled politely, but a few were smirking. Mom had hidden her eyes in Asami's neck, her shoulders shaking as Asami patted her back and whispered something into her ear. Jinora gave Ikki a reassuring smile; Meelo waved.

Tarrlok led Ikki up the stairs and unlocked the bedroom next to Jinora's. Ikki followed him inside and stood patiently, facing the shaded window, while he bolted the sliding door again.

"Now we'll have some privacy," he said.

And Ikki would have no hope of escaping. Not that she could really outrun a bloodbender, probably, and not that she could run off and leave her family even if she could, but she liked having the option.

"Well?" Tarrlok unbuttoned his shirt, revealing a chest that was just as smooth as Mom had indicated. "Are you going to undress, or were you planning on doing this in your wedding dress?"

Ikki's face got so hot that it must have been as red as her gown, and she quickly averted her gaze to the floor again. She unpinned her hair first, setting the headdress on the vanity. As her hair unwound down her back, she fumbled with the ribbons and straps holding her into her wedding dress.

Tarrlok helped, loosening knots she wasn't strong enough to undo herself. Ikki found herself staring at his bare chest again, taking in his cloying, spicy cologne. He almost seemed like a different person than she remembered, but she supposed she couldn't remember more than a few moments of interacting with him. There was something wrong under the surface, like the smell of mildew under heavy incense, but she could ignore it if she didn't look too hard. In fact, as he slipped her dress down her shoulders, she could almost convince herself his touch was tender.

He touched her chin, tilting it up until she was forced to stare into his face. "I appreciate your deference, but you don't have to keep your head down when we're alone." He ran his finger over her dry lips. "In fact, I won't require it of you when we're in public, but it certainly pleases me."

She looked at parts of his face to avoid looking at the whole: flat nose, wide chin, thick eyebrows, creases on his forehead. He touched her naked shoulder, and the shock made her accidentally look at all of his face. She swallowed. His blue eyes were wider and less malicious-looking than she remembered, but it was the same face that had dominated her nightmares for years. Ikki was suddenly freezing in just her undergarments. She shivered, hugging herself for warmth.

"Let's get you into the bed," Tarrlok said. He lifted her up like a child and carried her to the massive wooden bed. He climbed in next to her, closing the red and gold curtains over the entrance.

The mattress was soft underneath Ikki, and it was much warmer inside the curtains. Even so, Ikki couldn't stop shaking. His whole hand wrapped around her upper arm, repositioning her onto her back.

"I haven't- I've never-" Ikki tried to say.

"I'm well aware," he cut her off. "Let me handle everything."

He untied the wrappings around her small breasts. She couldn't help thinking that she was just another present he had given himself. Tarrlok stripped away her underwear, and she closed her legs for modesty. To her surprise, he didn't bother her about that. Instead, he finished taking off his clothes, shoving them onto the floor.

He was bigger than the picture in Jinora's book. Ikki tried not to stare, even as she began to worry. Tarrlok took her hand in his and made her rub her fingers over his skin. He was firm and soft and smooth and radiated heat into her hand. She must have made a face, because he laughed at her and released his grip on her. His fingers left white prints on the back of her hand.

"I wasn't expecting you to be less curious than your sister," he said.

Ikki _was_ curious. She wanted to know if it was always sticking up like this and if so how he got his pants to fit around it and what it would feel like if she was a boy and how exactly something that big was supposed to fit inside her and if boys ever had problems getting those things into girls or more importantly if they ever got them stuck and if that did happen what people did to fix it. She was just too afraid to ask.

"I won't make you explore if you're shy," Tarrlok said. "I just wanted to give you the opportunity to acquaint yourself with my body before I do the same with yours."

Now he opened her legs, leaning over her with his weight on one elbow. She crumpled the sheet below her in her sweaty fists as he pushed against her. Their bodies didn't seem to want to connect. Maybe it was an omen. Maybe there was some superstition about this kind of thing, like that if two people didn't fit well physically they wouldn't fit well emotionally, either. He shoved hard, and Ikki made a noise like a wounded sky bison. It felt like he had stretched skin past the point of ripping. Even though she hurt like crazy, Ikki sighed in relief. That had to have been the worst of it. She just had to wait for him to finish now.

He raised up off of her, and for a second she thought he was already done, but he pushed back into her. And then he did it again. And yet again. Each time felt like rubbing salt into shallow cuts. This wasn't anything like what Ikki had been expecting. She felt an episode coming on, the first one she'd had since in almost a year. Her lungs and throat constricted, her heart beat too fast, and her arms and legs went numb.

"I can't breathe," Ikki gasped. "It hurts and I can't breathe and I don't like this and I'm pretty sure we're doing this completely wrong."

He chuckled and kissed her neck, her shoulders, her breasts. "Relax, Ikki," he said. His voice was as soft as velvet, but there was something cold and hard underneath it. "It'll be over soon. This is part of your wifely duties."

She pressed trembling hands against his chest, trying to get him off of her so she could breathe. It was like trying to earthbend. Tarrlok covered her hands with his and forced them into the mattress on either side of her head.

"I need Jinora," Ikki said. Her face ached from trying not to cry. "Please go get Jinora."

"Adventurous little minx," Tarrlok teased. "We'll bring her in some other night. Not on our wedding night. This is supposed to be about the two of us."

Ikki shut her eyes. She was on her own fighting off this episode. She pretended she was seven again, sitting on the steps behind the dormitory while Jinora talked her through one of her daily episodes.

_"Focus on the sound of your breathing,"_ Jinora had always said in that calm voice. _ "We're sitting with Dad and Meelo in the meditation pavilion. Your breathing is getting slower and slower, and your muscles are getting floppy and relaxed. You're regaining your peace and balance with every deep, slow breath you take."_

Ikki found herself slipping into a meditation trance, drifting away from her physical body into the world she and Jinora had recreated together over the years. She wondered if Jinora ever visited anymore, or if she even remembered all those nights they'd spent snuggling and sharing their memories. Jinora was so strong, she probably never needed to visit Air Temple Island unless she was taking Ikki there.

Teeth scraped over Ikki's breast, startling her back to the present. The episode was mostly gone, and the pain wasn't as bad as it had been. Ikki shifted underneath Tarrlok, trying to get more comfortable.

"I'm sorry I'm not better at this," Ikki said, more to be polite than because she meant it.

"I find your inexperience charming," he assured her. "Are you starting to enjoy yourself more?"

Ikki nodded, again merely to be polite.

"You know, when I married your sister, I told her she could have anything she wanted," he said. His breath tickled her ear, made her want to reach up and scratch it. "Just because you're the second wife doesn't mean you can't have the same. Jinora wanted a bigger library. What would you like?"

Ikki wanted him to get off of her. She was pretty sure that wasn't an option, so she tried to think of something else.

"A necklace with a diamond bigger than your whole hand?" he suggested. "A private cinema?"

Ikki shook her head, trying to think of what she wanted. All of the things that came to mind were people: she wanted Meelo to move back home, for Dad and the baby to be alive again, for Asami to be able to see again-

"I want a Satomobile," she blurted out. "Something fast and pretty and expensive and fun to drive."

"I didn't realize you knew how to drive," Tarrlok said.

"I'll learn."

He hesitated, as if he was afraid she might grab her family and run away if she had a car. "We'll see." He kissed her cheek. "Keep behaving like you did at the wedding, and I'll buy you a Satomobile."

His conversation diminished into grunting. She wrapped her arms around his neck; she was pretty sure she'd read that somewhere, back when she'd been clueless about sex. She tried to think about how happy she would be to get a Satomobile and drive Asami around, letting her friend feel the wind in her hair again, but even that depressed her. Mom had said to think about cute boys her own age. Maybe if she pretended that she was a princess and Tarrlok was a handsome prince, and that the prince was claiming her as his reward for rescuing her from a terrible monster...

Something stirred inside her lower stomach, the ticklish sensation of some forgotten desire waking up. He must have felt her relax, because his movements suddenly became more fluid. Instead of hammering away at her like a task to cross off his agenda, he moved like he was practicing a waterbending form. The new angle felt so much better that Ikki sighed in relief.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" Tarrlok smirked at her.

His voice added tension back into her muscles, but she imagined that the stress was a leaf and set it on the current in front of her. He was a strong, handsome prince, and she was a beautiful princess, and they were making love on his cloak in a warm, dry cave while the rain pattered outside. It was okay that it hurt, since she was giving up her maidenhood for her true love. Ikki stretched out her back, unexpectedly enjoying the pain and also noticing that it wasn't all painful.

The prince embraced her tightly and rolled the both of them over. She moved herself up and down for him without him having to ask, her knees digging into soft dirt. Her prince held onto her hips and nudged her into a faster pace. She realized that she liked having him inside her, that she liked squeezing her muscles to make him moan.

When it finally felt like her excitement was going to overwhelm her, she gripped his shoulders tightly. Something amazing washed over her, like a thousand tiny, zapping hands massaging every inch of her sore body. Her knees drew in towards each other, squeezing the prince's sides, and she cried out without meaning to. She rocked back and forth and then collapsed on his chest, panting.

"That was impressive."

Ikki opened her eyes and only just managed not to let the disappointment show on her face. Tarrlok was watching her, an amused look on his face. He pulled her off and rolled her onto her side.

"It felt better than I thought it would," Ikki said, and for the first time, she wasn't lying.

He wrapped his heavy arm around her waist and pulled her close, her back against his stomach. "I needed that," he said, kissing the back of her neck. "It's nice to have a girl who's fully willing, for once."

He covered both of them with the blanket. After he began to snore, Ikki pulled her knees up to her chest and tried to remember Dad's face.


	5. Chapter 5

Ikki woke before Tarrlok the next morning. She slipped out from under his arm with a little help from airbending and stood up. She found two silk robes hanging on a hook and pulled on the smaller one.

Mom, Asami, and Jinora were sitting at the breakfast nook, drinking tea and giggling quietly. They stopped talking before Ikki was close enough to hear what they were saying.

"Hi, Ikki," Jinora said.

"Good morning," Asami greeted her. "Still alive, huh?"

Mom jumped up from her seat and hugged Ikki. "My little girl is all grown up," she said, kissing all over Ikki's face. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," Ikki replied. "Just hungry."

"Sit down," Mom said. "Have some breakfast. I'll make you some of our tea. Unless-" She lowered her voice and glanced towards the stairs. "Are you hoping to have a baby soon?"

"No, tea sounds good," Ikki said. She sat between Jinora and Asami and ladled porridge into a clean bowl.

"So, what did you think?" Asami asked.

"I had an episode, but after that it went pretty well."

"You had an episode?" There was just a hint of sisterly worry in Jinora's voice. "I didn't think to warn him about those."

"It was okay," Ikki said. "I calmed myself down. And then I imagined something romantic like Mom said, and it actually felt pretty nice."

"Good." Mom's shoulders slumped with relief. "I was worried about you. I didn't sleep very well last night."

"You really didn't," Asami said. "Sorry for falling asleep on you while I was rubbing your back."

"Hush," Mom said, and it looked like she was blushing.

"Anyways," Asami said, "what does he look like naked?"

"I didn't see any ponytails, but he does seem to shave his chest," Ikki said. "Good guess, Mom."

Mom gave her a tiny smile, one that didn't quite meet her eyes. "One out of two isn't so bad."

"Oh, and he said he might get me a Satomobile!" Ikki beamed. "I'd have to learn how to drive, but once I did I could drive you all around and take you cool places. Wouldn't that be cool?"

Asami stabbed her porridge with her spoon. "Yeah, that would be great," she said with forced enthusiasm. "Driving is a lot of fun."

"I was thinking you could pretend like you were driving," Ikki said. "I know it's not the same, but-"

"It's really sweet," Asami assured her. "I just have a lot of feelings about Satomobiles. I would love to go driving with you."

Footsteps creaked down the stairs, and everyone stopped talking. Mom set a cup of tea in front of ikki. She sniffed it. It kind of smelled like a mixture of sweet potatoes and feet.

Tarrlok appeared in the doorway, his own blue robe tied with a white belt. "Out," he said.

Mom and Asami didn't even protest. They immediately rose, and Mom guided Asami to the front door. When they were gone, Tarrlok stretched out between Ikki and Jinora and served himself some of Mom's cooking.

"You drink that disgusting tea as well?" he asked Ikki, giving her cup a look of contempt. "Air nomad culture is so unsavory."

Ikki thought that was pretty bold, coming from someone whose culture ate seal fat and whale jerky and sea urchins, but she didn't say anything.

"How was your sleep, Husband?" Jinora asked.

"Refreshing," Tarrlok said. "There's nothing like sleeping at home after an extended business trip."

He didn't ask how she or Ikki had slept.

"Speaking of business, I have some matters to discuss with both of you," he went on. "Jinora, you're to avoid leaving the house after this week. If you must go in public, you will wear loose clothing."

"Yes, my husband," Jinora said.

"Can I leave the house?" Ikki asked, unable to stop her curiosity. "Why can't Jinora leave? Why does she have to wear loose clothes?"

"Jinora is a few months away from having a baby," Tarrlok said.

Ikki glanced at Jinora, who was taking a long drink of her special tea. "She is?"

"Yes," Tarrlok said. "I won't have my second wife giving birth before the first. It would be humiliating."

Ikki took a gulp of her own tea, her heart beating faster.

"I've found a suitable surrogate," Tarrlok continued. "Her features are similar to yours, Jinora, so no one will think to question it."

Jinora shrugged. "If it pleases you, Husband."

Tarrlok stretched out his left arm, pulling Ikki close to his side. "I'm a lucky man to have such obedient wives," he said.

Ikki managed a weak smile.


	6. Chapter 6

Ikki's monthly bleeding started a week after her wedding, and she suddenly found herself incredibly lonely. With no classmates or husband to keep her distracted, she found herself reading all of the books Jinora had pulled for her. And that was why she was lying in her bed with a book when something thunked against the other side of the wall.

"Ouch," Jinora said through the wood.

"Stop complaining," Tarrlok said. "I know you like it rough."

"Yes, Husband," Jinora said.

Ikki pressed her pillow over her head, but it didn't block out everything. She wondered if Jinora had been hearing everything from Ikki's bedroom for the past week. How embarrassing.

"Submissive little Jinora. You like it when I take control of your body, don't you?"

"I do," Jinora said. She sounded incredibly bored to Ikki. "Oh, Husband, bloodbend me!"

Ikki couldn't take this anymore. The idea that Jinora liked having Tarrlok bloodbend her was too gross to think about. She rolled out of bed and hurried out of her bedroom with her book. She wasn't sure where she was going until she got there: the lychee tree in the courtyard.

The tree looked and smelled like the courtyard from her childhood home, Air Temple Island. Ikki crawled up into the thin, windy branches and tried to find a comfortable spot. Her book was really interesting, and before she knew it, she'd forgotten all about the knot in her back in favor of the beautiful romance.

The princess and her bodyguard were just about to share a forbidden kiss when Tarrlok's cold voice pierced her awareness.

"Get out of that tree this instant."

Ikki almost fell off her branch. She hadn't even heard him come outside. She closed her book and scrambled down the tree on an air scooter, landing in a crouch in front of him. "Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I didn't realize the tree was off-limits."

He slapped her cheek, just hard enough to make her ears ring. "Drop the sarcasm. I know you were raised to be respectful, and I'm certain that climbing trees was discouraged at your school."

Ikki hadn't been sarcastic, and she hadn't realized climbing trees was inherently bad, but she bit her tongue and bowed her head. "I'm sorry, my husband," she said softly. "It was a mistake."

"Of course." He pulled her into an embrace. "I forgive you. Just stay away from the trees. They were all rather expensive."

Ikki had to consciously relax for his hug. "I understand," she said. "I'm very sorry. It won't happen again."

"I know it won't," he said. "Come back inside the house. It's nearly dinner time."


	7. Chapter 7

Since Jinora was supposed to be resting due to her 'happy news', Ikki found herself attending all sorts of fancy balls and operas and dinners in her sister's place over the next few months. She found occasions to wear each of the new dresses Tarrlok had bought her, and Jinora even let her borrow the most beautiful yellow silk layer-dress ever made. As she grew more confident in such fancy settings, her finishing school lessons finally kicked in. After reviewing the notes she'd taken in etiquette class, Ikki decided the Police Force Appreciation Ball was the right place to test out some small talk.

"So you do have working vocal cords," teased the police chief's middle-aged wife. "I was starting to think you might not. How is your sister?"

"She's doing fine," Ikki said. She realized the woman was asking about the fictional baby. "As well as can be expected for her condition, I mean."

"She must be so excited."

"Oh yes, she's very excited," Ikki lied, picturing the way Jinora always yawned whenever the baby was mentioned. "We're all very anxious to have a little baby around the house. I hope Jinora will teach me to be a good mother. My little brother is only two years younger than me, so I don't have very much experience with babies. I'm sure my mom will come help us with the baby, too."

Chief Sun's wife laughed. Ikki sensed that her tongue was racing out of control, even without Tarrlok's crushing grip on her wrist.

"Excuse me, may I have this dance?" Tarrlok pulled Ikki into a waltz before she had a chance to answer.

Ikki rested her hands on his arms and let him sweep her around the room. She hadn't really wanted to dance just then, but now that he was making her, she supposed dancing was a pretty romantic thing to do. He pulled her close and nested his face against her ear.

"No more talking," he said. "Understood?"

"Yes, Husband," she whispered back.

He straightened, and Ikki was relieved to see that he was smiling. She didn't utter more than five words the rest of the night, hanging onto Tarrlok's arm like a good little wife. He rewarded her with loving glances and pets, and it seemed that she'd been forgiven.

The second they closed the car doors, he turned into a monster again. "You were a complete embarrassment!" he snarled. "I couldn't have lost more face if you'd announced that you were a whore like your mother. You acted like a child."

"I'm sorry," Ikki began to cry. "I can't help it. I still am a child!"

He hit her across the face, and Ikki realized she shouldn't even talk in private. She cried as quietly as she could, afraid to draw his attention to her in any way. When they reached the house, he left her at the foot of the stairs and occupied Jinora's bedroom. Ikki laid the beautiful yellow dress over her couch and went to bed in her slip.

That night, Ikki dreamt she was walking on a tight rope in the circus. There was a pool of blood on her left side and a bottomless pit on her right. Gusts of wind tried to knock her off the wire, and she couldn't keep her balance and bend the air away at the same time. Ikki slipped off the wire into the nothingness and woke up in a cold sweat.

Sunlight was covering her floor, and Tarrlok was shouting from the next room. Ikki pulled on a robe and tiptoed into the hallway outside Jinora's room to watch.

"What do they say?!" Tarrlok was waving several sheets of paper in the air. They glowed pink and orange in the morning light. "I won't have my own wife conspiring against me!"

Ikki recognized the flowy characters on one of the papers. They were symbols from the secret women's writing language that Mom had taught Jinora, who had then taught Ikki. She didn't dare let him know that, though.

"Who sent you these, Jinora?" Tarrlok demanded. "What sort of code are they written in?!"

"No code," Jinora finally managed to say. Her voice was shaking. "No one sent them to me. I wrote them. It's a shorthand I invented for jotting down poetry ideas. Sometimes the metaphors come too fast for me to draw the full symbol."

"Of course. And you expect me to believe you just happened to fold your poetry notes like letters and store them inside a book in your desk?"

"But I really do!" Jinora protested. "Please, Husband. No one is more loyal to you than me."

Tarrlok threw the letters into the fireplace and stomped out of the room without saying another word. A moment later, the front door slammed, and they heard his car crank up. Jinora sank onto her chair and watched the letters curl into flames, her face blank and white.

"Jinora, who sent you those letters?" Ikki whispered, closing Jinora's bedroom door behind her.

"Gran-Gran," Jinora whispered back. "She's in a... a prison thing for older people here in Republic City. I'm not supposed to know, but I go to visit her when Tarrlok is away on business."

"Gran-Gran's in prison?" Ikki's mouth fell open in horror. "We've gotta get her out, Jinora! Poor Gran-Gran!"

"It's not a terrible prison," Jinora said. "It's more like an asylum for people who are too old to care for themselves, but they're not allowed to leave. She pretends to be too old and fragile to do anything, but really she's just lying low. She could bloodbend everyone and escape if she wanted, but she gets to live for free there, and it's close to us."

"How do you know this?" Ikki asked, amazed. "How did you even find out?"

"I read Tarrlok's letters while he's away on business," Jinora replied. "Gran moved here right after I got married, but Tarrlok put her in the asylum. She convinced a cleaning woman to take letters to Mom, though."

"Can I visit Gran-Gran too?"

"Not right now, Ikki." Jinora's voice sounded strained. "I'm trying to figure out what to do. Where do you think he's going?"

"Mom's house?" Ikki suggested.

"No, he never goes there," Jinora said. "He probably has a meeting at work."

"Probably," Ikki said. "Jinora, are you sad about Gran-Gran's letters?"

"That would be useless," Jinora said. "Feeling sad won't un-burn them or make Tarrlok forget about them."

Ikki hugged her anyways.


	8. Chapter 8

"'"Come closer," the knight whispered,'" Jinora read. "'The princess leaned over him, and her silken black hair fell into his face. He pressed the locks against his nose and, with his last breath, inhaled the fragrance of her perfume. The princess closed his eyes and mounted her horse, and returned to her kingdom.'"

Ikki blew her nose in her handkerchief. "No, no, no. He can't be dead. Is she going to marry the evil prince?"

"I can't tell you that," Jinora said. "I don't want to spoil it for you."

"Spoil it!" Ikki begged. "I need to know."

"She marries the evil prince," Jinora said.

Ikki moaned and rolled over, nestling her ear against Jinora's thigh. Resting her head on her sister's lap and listening to stories was her favorite part of the day, but not when they were tragedies.

"Jinoraaaa," she complained. "I said no sad stories!"

"But it's such a good book," Jinora said. She had that dreamy look in her eyes, the one she got whenever she was thinking about some beautiful story. "The evil prince dies, and she takes over his kingdom as the queen and makes everything better."

"I guess that's okay," Ikki sighed. "You can keep reading."

The front door slammed, and they both jumped onto their feet. A moment later, Tarrlok appeared in the doorway.

"Incompetent fools can't do anything without me," he grumbled, closing the door to Jinora's bedroom.

"May I rub your feet, husband?" Jinora asked, setting her book down.

Tarrlok gave her a softer glance andtook his shirt off. "Of course," he said.

"I should give you privacy," Ikki said, heading towards the door.

"Stay," Tarrlok ordered. "No need to be prudish. You're not an innocent little virgin anymore."

"But... but Jinora is my sister," Ikki said.

"You're the one that wanted her in our bed on our wedding night," Tarrlok said. "Help your sister."

Ikki joined both of them on the bed. Jinora massaged the scented oil into Ikki's hands, and the younger sister mimicked the older sister's movements. Fingers glided over soft soles and hairy toes, and thumbs worked tendons hidden under skin. Ikki and Jinora sat in silence, letting Tarrlok rant about the rest of the government's incompetence and his own brilliance and political ferocity. When Tarrlok grew tired of talking about himself, he pulled Jinora onto his lap and untied her robes.

Ikki stared straight down at his feet, trying to protect her sister's modesty. The whole affair made her feel nauseous. It was bad enough if two sisters had to marry the same man, but this... this had crossed a line Ikki hadn't even realized she had.

Tarrlok grabbed Ikki by the arm and hauled her up the bed. She kept her head turned away, her gaze falling on Jinora's bookshelf. He must be doing this to punish Jinora for the letters.

"What's wrong, Ikki?" Tarrlok swiveled his fingers down her spine.

Ikki shuddered, although she didn't know if it was from his touch or the way he said her name. "Nothing's wrong," she said.

Tarrlok flipped Jinora onto her back. Ikki caught him watching his own reflection in the mirror against one wall while he moved up and down on Jinora. He seemed to fancy himself a virile young warrior in bed.

Ikki supposed she was just as guilty of playing make-believe as he was. It was just a lot easier to relax when she tuned out the grey bits in his hair or the subtle wrinkles in his face. She was seventeen; given the choice, she would prefer someone a lot closer to her own age. Still atop Jinora, he slid Ikki's robe down her arms.

"Why don't you kiss your sister?" he said. His tone indicated that it was an order, not a suggestion.

Ikki shook her head. "That's okay," she said.

Tarrlok's jaw locked, making him look like an angry statue.

Jinora gripped Ikki's hand, and the cold sweat on the older sister's hand was the only indication that she was as frightened as Ikki. "Come on, Ikki," she said in her bored voice. "It's not that big a deal. Kiss me."

Ikki took a deep breath, brushed her hair behind her shoulders, and leaned down to kiss Jinora on the lips. She started to pull away just before their mouths met, and Jinora had to reach up and grab the back of her head. They kissed awkwardly, and their teeth kept getting in the way. Ikki tasted salt, and it took her frazzled mind a few seconds to process that she was crying soundlessly. This was all gross and wrong and she was sure that he was going to make them do even worse things-

"Alright, that's enough," he finally said, sitting back on his knees.  
Ikki tried to wipe her dripping eyes and nose with her hands.

"Jinora, I want you to get more of that oil and rub my shoulders. My muscles ache from that wretched meeting." He climbed on top of Ikki. "Are you happier now, little wife?"

Ikki shut her eyes tight, blocking out him and Jinora and the rest of the world. She didn't want Jinora to see her like this, at her most naked and vulnerable. She left her body behind and wound up in the Sky Bison pen.

"Make sure to keep your hand open," Dad said, holding an apple in his palm to demonstrate. "I almost lost half a hand feeding Oogi when I was your age. Baby sky bison aren't very good at telling the difference between human and apple."

Ikki and Jinora laughed but followed his instructions.

"Woohoo!" Korra jumped out of the hay loft, landing on Oogi's back. "I vote Oogi teaches my airbending lesson today! Isn't that how the original airbenders learned?" Her eyes were sparkling like sun on a warm ocean, and her huge grin spread onto Ikki's face. They were all home safe and sound, and no one bad could ever get to them on Air Temple Island.

When Ikki opened her eyes again, Tarrlok was gone. Jinora had covered her up with a blanket and was rubbing the side of her arms the way Mom always used to. She sighed in relief.

"Are you back?" Jinora asked.

Ikki nodded.

"Tarrlok went to pick up dinner," Jinora said. "He wants us cleaned up and ready for dinner by the time he gets back."

Ikki sat up. "Alright," she said. "I'll get ready. I'm sorry for leaving."

"It's okay." Jinora patted her shoulder. "I don't think he cared. I leave most of the time, too."

"Really?"

Jinora nodded. "I go into a book-world or visit Air Temple Island." She went to her sink and splashed water on her face and neck. "It's sad, when you think about it. I looked forward to sex from the firsttime I read about it when I was nine. Now, I hate the thought of it."

"What about with another boy?" Ikki asked, using Jinora's wooden comb on her own hair.

"I don't have feelings for any other boys. I don't think I'll ever trust another man as long as I'm alive."

"Girls?"

Jinora shrugged. "I guess it's possible. Mom and Asami are really in love. But maybe I was just called to be celibate."

"Mom and Asami are in love?" Ikki repeated.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jinora asked.

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Ikki said after a moment's reflection.

Tarrlok's car rumbled up the driveway again, and they scrambled to finish dressing.

He was just sitting down at the table when they burst into the dining room together.

"Just in time," he said. "I was feeling a little homesick. Do you like water tribe food?"

Ikki nodded, watching him serve soup into three bowls. Water Tribe food reminded her of family vacations visiting Gran-Gran. Tarrlok served Jinora first, but she just stirred the broth.

"Try your soup, Jinora." Tarrlok said, setting another bowl in front of Ikki.

"Of course, Husband," Jinora said politely. "Does it have any meat in it?"

"Only a little."

Jinora played with her soup. "What made you so nostalgic tonight, Husband?" she asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Tarrlok said. "Eat your soup."

The tension that was always just under the surface whenever Tarrlok was near seemed closer and scarier tonight. Ikki wrapped her legs around Jinora's under the table, trying to tell her to eat the stupid soup. She didn't want to see what it looked like when Tarrlok actually lost control.

"This soup is delicious!" Ikki said, a little too cheerfully, as she stuck a bite into her mouth. It wasn't wonderful, but it wasn't amazing, either. Ikki had never been as strict about vegetarianism as Jinora, perhaps since she'd been younger when they'd been ripped away from their families. She didn't love eating meat, but it wasn't gross to her like it was to Jinora.

"Jinora?" Tarrlok stared at his first wife. His jaw was twitching, and Ikki could see a blue vein popping out against the side of his face.

"I'm saving room for noodles," Jinora said meekly.

"You're going to eat every last bite of that soup." Tarrlok's hands twisted, and Jinora went rigid in her seat. "I won't allow my own wife to disrespect my culture- my family!"

"Stop, you're hurting her!" Ikki cried.

Jinora's foot rubbed the inside of Ikki's calf comfortingly, and the shock was so great that Ikki couldn't have protested anymore even if her sister hadn't been asking her not to.

"Ikki, help your sister eat her soup," Tarrlok commanded.

Ikki sat there, stunned.

"Now!"

Terrified that he would bloodbend her, too, Ikki jumped up and ran to Jinora's side. "I'm sorry," she whispered, taking up the bowl of soup.

Jinora just sat there, her face and hands white. Her jaw unclenched, head tilting back until her hair touched the back of the chair.

Ikki tried to pour the soup down her sister's throat as gently as possible. She stopped a few times to let Jinora breathe and whispered apologies whenever she heard the choking that meant a bit of squid had gone down. When the large bowl was empty again, Tarrlok released Jinora from his grip. She gave him a poisonous look, shoved her chair back, and bolted into the courtyard.

"Sit down and eat," Tarrlok said to Ikki. "She'll be back when she's finished pouting."

Ikki returned to her seat, too afraid to defy him and run after Jinora. The rest of her meal tasted like sand.


	9. Chapter 9

Once Tarrlok finally excused Ikki from the table, she found Jinora lying under the lychee tree, staring up into its branches.

"Are you okay?" Ikki asked.

"He's done worse," Jinora said. It wasn't quite an answer.

"Why didn't you stop him?" Ikki pushed her. "If you can resist his bloodben-"

"Hush!" Jinora whispered. "Not here. Not while he's home."

Ikki lay down next to Jinora, following her gaze. "We had lychee trees on Air Temple Island," she said.

"I know. This is my favorite part of the house. Well, next to my library."

Ikki snuggled up to Jinora. "I miss Dad."

"I miss Meelo," Jinora said. "Dad's been gone for so long I don't remember him very well, but Meelo... Tarrlok let's me see him just enough to keep me behaving. It seems like every time I manage to get Meelo talking again, Tarrlok sends him away within a day."

"I miss the way life used to be." Ikki wiped a tiny splatter of vomit off Jinora's cheek with her sleeve. "I would even be okay with going back to the way things were right after I got married.

"He won't be like this for long," Jinora said, not taking her eyes off the sky.

"How do you know?"

"He always starts to get violent and edgy, goes away on 'business' for a few days, and comes back all sweet and mushy and gentle."

"He must really like business trips!" Ikki remarked. "I wonder why he likes to work so much."

"Don't be obtuse," Jinora said in that snooty, condescending tone she got when she she knew better than everyone else. "He obviously has a mistress."

"A mistress?" Ikki's forehead wrinkled. "Isn't two wives enough?"

"I think he needs an outlet for his scarier side," Jinora said. "He needs to do terrible things to someone, and I think they're so terrible that everyone would riot and cause problems if he did them to us."

Ikki shivered. "What kind of things?"

"I don't know. Maybe he needs to cut off fingers and toes or bite chunks out of someone's skin or cut designs into someone's skin."

"Maybe he needs to pull peoples' teeth and fingernails out," Ikki suggested.

"Probably," Jinora agreed.

"Who do you think he does that stuff to?"

"Korra," Jinora answered without hesitation. "She's been missing for ten years. Don't you think they would have found the new avatar by now if she was dead? I bet he has her locked up in a dungeon somewhere."

Ikki's soup sloshed around in her stomach. She folded her arms over it to try to stop the gurgling. "Poor Korra," she said.

"Ikki! Jinora!"

They both sat up immediately, probably looking a lot like a couple of frightened prairie dog-rabbits. Tarrlok was standing in the doorway, an irritable look on his face.

"Come inside, girls. I'm going to bed."


	10. Chapter 10

Mom and Asami came to visit the next day while Tarrlok was at work. Ikki had to concentrate hard to avoid jumping up and down or running around in excitement.

"Well, well, how's my grandbaby doing?" Mom teased, placing her hand on Jinora's flat stomach.

"I have no idea," Jinora said, smiling for the first time in weeks. "When I find out, I'll be sure to let you know."

"When does Chairman Asshole think this baby is going to be born, anyways?" Asami asked.

"Soon," Jinora said. "That's all he says. He has a business trip planned for next week."

"He does?" Ikki asked.

"Yes. He told me this morning. You were still asleep."

The mood in the room became more festive, at least in Ikki's opinion. The conversation shifted to plans for the near-unlimited bonding time the women would have while Tarrlok was gone.

"We should go to Yue Bay," Asami said. "It will be so pretty this time of year. I'd love to have a picnic with you three."

"We could visit Air Temple Island!" Ikki said. "Or is it still called that? I would give anything to see it again."

"I would too," Mom said.

"Then it's settled," Asami said. "Pema and I will clear our schedules."

"I wonder if the lychee trees are still in bloom," Mom mused.

"Tarrlok's is," Ikki said. "Hey, let's go see if any lychee nuts are on the ground today!"

They found two lychee nuts in the dirt under the tree It was too many not to eat, but not enough for everyone to get one. While the others argued about who should eat the lychee, Ikki scrambled up into the tree and started throwing the hard fruits at people.

"What the hell was that?" Asami asked, rubbing her neck where one had grazed her.

Mom giggled. "It seems there's a little monkey in the tree. Ikki, stop throwing them at us!"

"You'd better get down," Jinora said, her face serious. "If Tarrlok catches you up there-"

"He won't!" Ikki threw a handful of lychee at Jinora's head. "He's at work, remember?"

"Actually, I'm home early," a voice said.

The laughing stopped as quickly as if all air had been sucked out of the courtyard. Everyone froze in place.

"Hello, Husband," Jinora said, rushing over to him. "Can I get you any-"

"Go talk to the cook about dinner," he said curtly. "I know your thoughts on soup. I wouldn't want you to have to eat it two nights in a row."

Jinora bowed her head and walked into the house, giving Ikki a worried big-sister look over her shoulder when she reached the door. Then she was gone, and Mom put her hands on her hips. Asami crossed her arms and glared in Tarrlok's general direction.

"She didn't hurt your tree at all," Mom said. "I can tell you've had a bad day, and I'm sorry for that. But you need to go unwind before you deal with her, or you'll do something you regret."

"When I want marriage advice from you, I'll come visit your whorehouse," Tarrlok said. "Speaking of which, aren't you supposed to be there right now?"

Mom didn't move. "I'm not leaving until I'm sure you won't harm my daughter."

Tarrlok waved, and Asami fell to her knees, choking on the blood that was suddenly trickling out of her nose.

"Asami!" Mom leaned down, her hand on Asami's back. "Stop it, Tarrlok!"

His nostrils flared. "Get. Out. Of. My. House."

Mom pulled Asami onto her feet. "I'll be back later," she warned, leading a staggering Asami out of the courtyard. "Don't you dare hurt her."

By the time the two of them were out of earshot, Tarrlok looked so angry that Ikki was sure he was going to kill someone.

"Get down this instant," he hissed.

Ikki shook her head. She clung to the branches, terrified of what he might do to her if he got his hands on her.

Tarrlok flicked his wrists, and Ikki's muscles twitched and spasmed. She tried to cling to the trunk of the lychee tree, but her body was listening to someone else's brain. She flung herself out of the tree.

She tried to airbend a cushion underneath herself, but she couldn't even summon a breeze. She landed hard on the grass and tree roots. The impact knocked all the air out of her chest, and at first that was all she could take in. Then a sharp pain seared through her ribs, and she gave a pathetic cry.

"I told you not to play on that tree." Tarrlok's voice was quiet but furious. He kicked Ikki in the side, and the pain was so intense it was all she could do not to pass out. "Disobedient little brat!" He kicked her again, and again, until she was seeing orange and black patterns instead of the sky.

"Husband?" Jinora's voice broke through Ikki's stupor.

"What?" Tarrlok snarled.

Ikki opened her eyes, terrified that Tarrlok would turn his temper on her sister.

"There's a reporter lurking around the gates," Jinora said, her tone a little too casual. "I chased him off, but it looked as if he was heading back here."

Tarrlok took several deep breaths, a blue vein straining against his forehead. He knelt next to Ikki and raised his hand. Ikki flinched, but he caressed her face.

"My silly little wife," he said as smoothly as silk. "I asked you not to climb that tree because I was afraid you would fall. You must listen to my advice, Beloved. I have a thirty-year advantage on making mistakes. I only seek to protect you."

He scooped her into his arms, cradling her lovingly against his chest. His hands gripped her side and thigh so hard that Ikki knew she'd have bruises shaped like his fingers.

"Have one of the servants fetch a doctor," Tarrlok ordered Jinora.

He jostled her, and Ikki had a moment of intense pain before everything went completely black.

When Ikki woke up again, she was tucked into her bed. Jinora was sitting in a chair, reading a book.

"Jinora?" she croaked. "Can I have some water?"

Her sister poured her a glass of water and helped her drink it, one hand supporting the back of Ikki's neck. "Tarrlok's gone," she said as Ikki drank. "He left early for his business trip. Thank goodness."

Ikki's head floated gently back to her pillow, and she licked water from her cracked lips. "He's gone?"

"Yes. He left as soon as he heard you just had some broken ribs. He'll be gone at least a week."

Ikki tried to wiggle her feet. "I feel kind of weird and... swimmy."

"The doctor gave you opium to help with the pain," Jinora said. "Trust me, enjoy it while it lasts. Broken ribs hurt."

"I didn't think he'd get so mad," Ikki said. "I don't understand why that tree is so important."

"Sentimental value, I guess," Jinora said. "He planted it when his mother died."

"Oh." Ikki felt even guiltier than she had. "I didn't know."

"I don't think that's why he was mad, though," Jinora said. "Every time he's beaten me, he was mad about something or someone else. I just happened to be the only person around that he was allowed to hit."

Ikki shifted and groaned in pain. "I'm sure people expect him to keep his wives in line. He is very important. Maybe it would look bad if he didn't hit us occasionally when we broke the rules."

"In the Fire Nation, it's been illegal for men to beat their wives for over a hundred years," Jinora said. "Women were also allowed to serve in the military and own property sixty-five years before any other nation."

"Wow," Ikki sighed. "You have such a good memory, Jinora."

"I'm reading a book about it now," Jinora said, showing Ikki the cover of her book. "I wish I lived in the Fire Nation."

"Me too." Ikki stretched her legs, trying to get her muscles working again. "I really need to use the toilet."

"Lie still," Jinora said. "I'll bring a bedpan."

Ikki was too drowsy and desperate to feel embarrassed. Jinora was dumping the bedpan into the toilet when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Jinora shouted.

The next thing Ikki realized, Mom was stroking her hair and kissing her face.

"I'm so sorry, little love," Mom said. "I probably only made things worse for you."

Ikki just smiled and hugged Mom's arm to her chest.


	11. Chapter 11

When Ikki woke up again, Asami was sitting by her bedside, embroidering gold flowers on a red cloth. For a few moments, Ikki just watched Asami's long, white fingers caress the fabric as she searched for the right spot for her needle. It was like Asami could see through her fingers.

"Asami?"

"Good morning," Asami said. "Your mom had some clients to take care of. She'll be back soon. How are you feeling?"

"My back hurts a little, but I'm okay." Ikki struggled to sit up. "Is Tarrlok still gone?"

"He sure is. He beat the daylights out of you and left town." Asami flinched and stuck her finger into her mouth. "Too bad it's not for good. This city would be better off without him."

"Don't say that, Asami." Ikki stretched out carefully. "He's scary, but he could be a lot worse. The city could be worse off than it is."

Asami sighed. "Let's not talk about it. I don't want a fight."

"Okay." Ikki rubbed her eyes. "So can we do the picnic today?"

"Are you sure you're feeling well enough?"

"Definitely." Ikki wiggled a little, and the only thing that hurt was her muscles.

Tarrlok must have felt badly about hurting her and hired the best healer money could buy. That was sweet of him. Even though she had been climbing on the tree he'd planted for his mom's spirit, he'd still taken good care of her. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel.

"I just want to go somewhere," Ikki said. "I feel fine."

"Then I guess we'll have the picnic today." Asami put down her sewing and stood up. "Let me get Jinora to help you get ready. I'm not so good at that stuff anymore. If your mom didn't help me in the mornings, I would walk around with messy hair and mismatched socks."

By the time Jinora had helped Ikki into her clothing and packed four lunches, Mom had arrived. They took the streetcar to Yue Bay, where they discovered that the ferry was broken and abandoned.

"That's okay." Mom sounded almost relieved. "Yue Bay is just as pretty for a picnic."

Ikki sat down on the pokey grass, trying not to hate the ferryman and the mechanic and the teachers who had taken away her and Jinora's gliders. She could see the outline of Air Temple Island, but the sun's position made it hard to get a good look. They all took off their shoes and dangled their feet off the side of the pier, toes skimming the water like pelicans.

"We used to stand on the pier and feed our scraps to the birds," Mom said. "You girls were so little then, I don't know if you'd even remember. Sometimes I wish I could go back to when you girls used to fight over hair ribbons and I could carry you all around on my back."

Ikki put her arm around Mom. "Me too."

"Me three." Jinora scratched her foot against stone.

Asami didn't say anything. She ran the fingers on her left hand over the patch of grass next to her.

Ikki leaned around Mom to see her. "Are you alright, Asami?"

"Yeah, I wish I could go back in time, too." She broke off a handful of grass and threw it towards the water. "It was late summer when I lost my sight. I try not to talk about it, because it was almost ten years ago, and goodness knows your mom is probably sick of hearing about it. But my body remembers the little things, like the feeling of hot grass on my bare skin, and it makes me feel like I'm drowning in cold water." She shook the darkness off of her like the sky bison used to shake off bathwater. "Anyways, I'm glad we're doing the picnic today! This was a good plan, Ikki. I really needed to get away from that house today."

"We all did." Mom patted Asami's shoulder. "Life is meant to be like today! No awful husband or pimp keeping us cowering inside, no stinky customers who won't take no for an answer, just lots of sun and water and wind."

"And good food," Jinora added. "I miss eating Mom's cooking every night."

Ikki wasn't so sure about the good food part; everything tasted... off. It was probably the leftover opium in her stomach. She wrapped the rest of her meal back in its cloth and put it in the basket. "I miss flying. I miss my glider and all the sky bison and riding air scooters."

"I miss driving," Asami said. "If I could drive, I'd run over Tarrlok's ass five or six times, just to be sure he wasn't going anywhere."

"I know you would, Love." Mom giggled. "I miss nursing my babies and changing their diapers, strangely enough."

Jinora pulled her knees up to chest and covered her legs with the long sleeves of her dress. "I miss Meelo. Tarrlok keeps talking about this baby I'm supposedly having, and I feel like I'm going to go crazy. I want to take care of Meelo, not some screaming, pooping baby I never asked for."

Mom rubbed Jinora's back. "You've always been the best big sister, Jinora. I know you're not excited about this, but I think you'll be a great mom. It will give you and Ikki something to fill your days with."

"I like what my days are filled with now- books," Jinora said. "I want Meelo, not a brand new baby. They smell bad and you have to care for them every minute of every day. I don't like babies anymore."

"I like them," Ikki said. "They're cute and innocent and make funny faces."

"There's your solution, Jinora!" Asami patted Ikki's head. "Make your little sister be your baby's wet nurse."

Ikki pursed her lips. "Hey!"

They all laughed. Mom hugged Jinora, and for a while they were all silent..

Ikki laid back on the grass, staring up at the fluffy clouds. "Mom, did you know Gran-Gran is here, in the city?"

"Shh!" Mom's head whipped around to make sure no one was listening. "Yes, Ikki, I know. How did you find out?"

"Me," Jinora said. "Sorry, Mom."

"No, it's alright." Mom glanced around again and lowered her voice. "It's supposed to be a secret, but I know you can keep a secret."

"Can we go visit her?"

Mom and Jinora exchanged glances. "I don't see why not," Jinora said. "As long as Tarrlok's gone. Let me talk to my usual guard to make sure it's safe."

Ikki rested her head on Mom's shoulder. "So what's the plan?"

"The plan?"

"Yeah." Ikki scratched her ankle against the granite. "If Tarrlok is holding Gran-Gran and Korra like prisoners, how are we going to get them free?"

No one answered. Jinora cleared her throat.

Ikki clasped her hands in her lap. "You don't have a plan, do you?"

"What can we do?" Mom asked. "Tarrlok has the entire city in his pocket."

Ikki shrugged. "I don't know. We have to try something."

Mom gave Ikki a warning look. "This isn't the place to talk about it."

"I vote we poison Tarrlok," Asami said. "Slip something into his porridge. I can't do it, though. I have bad luck when it comes to these liberate-the-city plans, as it turns out."

"I didn't mean poison him!" Ikki rubbed a hand under her ribs, trying to ease away the nausea that came from the idea of eating poison. "Look, I know he's not a great person, but I don't think he deserves to be killed. Right, Mom?"

Mom put their picnic gear back into the basket. "I don't know, Ikki. We really shouldn't talk about this out here in the open."

"You can't be serious, Ikki." Jinora crossed her arms. "He threw you out of a tree."

"I know, but... everyone loses their temper." Ikki shrugged. "I would be really mad if Mom died, and I planted a tree for her, and someone was climbing around on it picking the fruit off of it when I specifically told them not to. It's sort of my own fault."

"No, it's not! Ikki, he killed Dad right in front of us." Jinora swallowed. "Don't you remember all the blood? He tore our family apart and made Asami go blind."

"I know, I know." Ikki pouted her lips. Fights were the worst, especially with Jinora. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

"Maybe we should just go home," Mom said.

Jinora scowled. "Yeah, maybe this was a bad idea."

Ikki pressed her lips together, wishing she'd done that two minutes ago instead of replying to Asami. They packed up their belongings and hobbled into their shoes and then made their way back towards the streetcar, taking the grassy route.

"Be careful, Asami." Mom stopped to adjust the picnic basket on her arm. "There are tree roots all over-"

Asami tripped over one such tree root right on cue. She landed hard on her forearms, staining them with dirt. Ikki and Jinora scrambled to help her up, their hands tucking under her elbows and around her waist. It seemed like a nice, friendly thing to do; the last reaction Ikki had been expecting was for Asami to scream and start hitting them.

"Asami, it's okay!" Ikki grabbed Asami's shoulders and shook her gently. "It's just us! You're fine, you're fine! We were trying to help you back up!"

Asami sobbed and curled up into a ball, breathing like she'd just been running for her life. "No, no, get your hands off of me!" She hugged herself, crying nonsense like she was lost in some horrible nightmare.

Jinora pulled Ikki's hands away from Asami. "It's no good trying to talk to her when she's like this. Leave her alone, Ikki. Let Mom handle it."

Ikki sat back on her heels, biting her dry, flaky lip. Asami was shaking so hard Ikki was worried she would have a full-blown fit. But she trusted Jinora, so she stepped back and watched Mom crawl towards Asami.

Mom covered the back of Asami's hand with her palm. Asami jerked her hand back like mom's fingers were hot metal. Mom tried again, this time stroking one fingertip down the back of Asami's hand and singing.

"Little swallow, dressed colorfully,

Comes here every spring."

I asked her, 'Why do you come here?'

She said, 'Spring here is the most beautiful.'"

Asami went still. She was still crying, but it was quieter, and she was letting Mom massage her whole hand now. She was listening, even though her shoulders were heaving. Mom kept singing.

"Little swallow, let me tell you

It's more beautiful here this year.

We've built large factories

And equipped new machines.

Please-"

Mom's voice cracked, and she had to sniff a couple of times before finishing the song. "Please live here forever."

Asami's hand explored the air in front of her. When she found Mom's shoulder, she threw herself into Mom's embrace and cried into the pink-covered bosom. Mom kept singing to Asami, petting her hair.

By the time Mom had sung the song three times, Asami had managed to calm down. She detached herself from Mom and pulled her knees closer to her chest.

"I'm sorry." Asami reached into her sleeve and retrieved a handkerchief, which she used to wipe her face. "I'm so sorry for... that. It's so embarrassing to lose control like that."

"Don't apologize," Jinora said. "You're in good company."

"Yeah, it's okay." Ikki took the picnic basket from Mom's side. "It must be really scary to fall when you can't see where you're falling!"

Asami smiled, but it was weaker than usual. "Yeah, that's part of it. I have a lot of shitty memories, and when I get disoriented, I get lost in them sometimes."

"The rest of us do that too, just without a good excuse." Jinora glanced at Ikki. "Don't be self-conscious about it."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mom asked. "Would that help you feel better this time?"

"Yes." Asami carefully stood up. "If only because Ikki needs to know why I think her husband deserves to be poisoned. But not here. Can we go home?"

0~0~0

They took the streetcar to a part of town Ikki didn't recognize. It wasn't as fancy as the neighborhood where Tarrlok lived, but it was nicer than most of the city. Mom stepped off on a street with a number of shops and restaurants on either side, and they all helped Asami disembark without falling. An old woman paused in sweeping of the street in front of a shop to wave at them. Mom waved back but didn't stop for conversation. Instead, she marched their group to an ordinary-looking red house and unlocked the door.

It didn't look like a brothel to Ikki, but she wasn't completely sure what a brothel was supposed to look like. It had regular old furniture, like the low table with cushions, instead of dirty mattresses piled on the floor. The only thing that distinguished it from any other home was the thin strips of red silk hanging from the ceiling. They came down to about the height of Ikki's shoulder, and they had little beads knotted onto the tips.

Mom cradled the end of one streamer in her hand. "The ribbons are so Asami doesn't trip over the big pieces of furniture. I think they make the place look more festive, too."

Ikki nodded. "That's a really smart idea, Mom!"

"She has a lot of them," Asami said. "She's the one who made a scheduling system we could both use."

Ikki tilted her head to one side as she stared at the contraption on the desk. It was really a pair of flat, wide wooden boxes with fabric on the sides and dozens of slots in each box. "How does it work?"

Asami ran her fingers over the box covered in yellow fabric. "This one is your mother's. I can tell because it has hemp fabric on the side. She put silk on mine. So if someone wanted to make an appointment with her, I would find the day by feeling for it-" Her fingers swept over the raised number symbols across the top and the week symbols across the side. "And then I would drop the correct Pai Sho tile into that opening." She handed Ikki one of the little discs. Unlike all the Pai Sho tiles Ikki had ever seen before, this one was intricately carved and textured. "We assigned a tile to each officer in the police force, and the system has worked really well for nine years now."

Mom unlocked a bedroom door. "Would you like to see our real home, Ikki?"

Ikki hesitated, ready to help Asami. Here, though, between the streamers and the ultra-tidy floors, Asami moved so easily that it seemed like she couldn't possibly be blind. Ikki followed everyone else into the bedroom.

Mom locked the door behind them. "I think Tarrlok expected us to use this room for storing clothes and getting ready and the like."

"And we do." Asami smiled. "But we also do a lot more than that."

This room was decorated in bright yellows and oranges and reds that reminded Ikki of Air Temple Island. A bed hid in the corner behind a half-drawn curtain. In the middle of the room, soft chairs had been arranged around the wardrobe and vanity.

Mom started a fire in the little stove near the door. "It's unbearable, trying to sleep in the same bed you've been using for clients all day." She blew on the flames. "We realized the day we moved in that we needed a room where the clients weren't allowed."

Ikki sat next to Asami on the sofa, not sure what to say. "It's really nice. It feels... safe."

"Exactly." Mom set a kettle over the fire. "The only safe place left in the city. Asami, dear, I'm heating the water for tea."

"Thanks, Pema." Asami unknotted the scarf around her neck. "What were we talking about, again?"

Ikki fidgeted. "Um, if you still want to, you were going to tell me why Tarrlok should be poisoned." To her own ears, it sounded like a desperate ploy to gain knowledge about Asami's private life, about how she went blind and what she was so afraid of.

Asami nodded, though. "After Tarrlok killed off most of the government and shipped you and your siblings off to your schools, he put a lot of people in jail or labor camps. I went to jail for a few months; that wasn't so bad. But once things settled down, Tarrlok decided I should work as an indentured whore for his police officers. That was how I learned Mako and Bolin were in a labor camp just outside the city. I figured if we teamed up, we could track down Korra and help her put an end to all of this. So I stole a Satomobile and crashed it into the fence of Mako and Bolin's labor camp."

"No way!" Ikki sat up straighter. "You didn't."

"I did!" Asami's smile melted. "But I had the worst luck. Tarrlok just happened to see me driving out of the city and decided to follow me. A couple of prisoners escaped, but Mako and Bolin stayed behind. See, when I crashed into the fence, I couldn't open either door of the Satomobile. I told them to leave, but they stayed and tried to pry me out of the wreckage."

"I didn't know that," Jinora said. "I just heard the short version of this story last time. That was really brave of Mako and Bolin."

"It was stupid." Asami frowned. "I was doomed either way. They should have escaped and found Korra without me."

Mom finished giving everyone their tea and sat down across from Asami. She must have heard this story a couple of times already. It was the only explanation why she was so calm about everything while Ikki and Jinora were practically holding their breath.

"So Tarrlok caught all three of us. He blinded me right there, and then..." Asami took a sip of tea. Her hands trembled so much she spilled a little down her front. "I didn't even have time to process the whole going blind thing before they- the wardens, I think- started tearing my clothes off. I couldn't tell which direction was up or who was on top of me, I just heard Mako swearing and Bolin crying. Afterwards, Tarrlok, uh-" Asami stopped to clear her throat and wipe her eyes. "I didn't see him execute Mako, obviously, but I heard it. And then they, he forced my hands into the blood and muscle and everything where his neck just ended. I wake up sometimes and my fingers remember the feeling of the bones around his spinal cord, the way everything was still pulsing and warm and..."

Everyone was silent, absorbing Asami's words. The mental image fully hit Ikki, and she had to grab the rubbish bin so she didn't throw up on the floor. Mom brought Ikki a glass of water.

"Sorry, Ikki," Asami said.

"It's not your fault." Ikki splashed water on her face. "I haven't felt well all day. It must be the opium that the healer gave me."

Mom rubbed Ikki's shoulders. "I almost forgot about your fall yesterday. Are you doing as well as you've been acting?"

"Yeah, I'm just sore." Ikki swished the water around her mouth. "The healer really knew what they were doing. And I guess the opium helps."

She switched out her cup of water for the teacup and sat back down by Asami.

"Where is Bolin now?" Jinora asked.

"I don't know. If he's still alive, he's probably still in prison or a camp." Asami shrugged. "I completely lost touch with the world for a while after what happened. Things had been getting progressively more terrible since I found out about my father and left my home, and I guess that was my breaking point. For a couple of weeks, all I could do was sleep and drink plum wine and cry. I don't remember a whole lot from the month or so after I lost my eyesight."

Jinora's face was completely blank, but her hands were curled into tight fists.

Ikki's face must have been somewhat less neutral than Jinora's, because Mom squeezed between Jinora and Asami and the sofa. "But then Tarrlok put us together here so I could look after Asami, and things got a lot better." She rubbed Asami's hands between hers, warming them up. "Asami needed someone to take care of her then, and I had just lost you three and your father, so I needed someone to take care of. And now Asami takes care of me, too. All the bad things that happened then, all the clients we have to take care of even when we don't want to, they're like an icy wind. The colder it blows, the more grateful we are for hot baths and warm blankets." She kissed Asami's hands. "And we're safe from the wind here inside our home."

"That's right." Asami smiled at the top of Mom's hair. "As long as you're here, Pema, I could live here forever."

They kissed on the lips, and Mom wiped the last of Asami's tears away.


	12. Chapter 12

Ikki lay in bed that night and stared at the wooden wall of her bed instead of sleeping. Her brain was too busy thinking about Mom and Asami to switch into dream mode. There was a knock on the door, and she sat up.

"Come in!"

Jinora peeked in. "Want some company? I can't sleep."

Ikki patted next to her on the bed. "Me neither. I'm just thinking about Mom and Asami. Their love story is so beautiful and romantic, even if it's also really sad and horrible."

"I can't really get past the sad and horrible part." Jinora shut the door and padded towards the bed. "I get so mad at Tarrlok sometimes that I have to scream into my pillow."

"Yeah." Ikki ran her fingers over the embroidery on the bed. "But we don't even know if things really happened the way Asami said, right?"

Jinora staggered back. From the look on her face, Ikki might as well have just slapped her. "You think Asami's lying?"

"I didn't say that!" Ikki bit her lip. "I just think that, you know, she had just gone blind. Maybe she got some of the details confused. Maybe Tarrlok didn't even stay for the whole thing."

Jinora stared at her.

"What?"

"This is my fault." Jinora's face was twitching, her lips rubbing together like she was trying not to cry. "It's my fault you keep defending him."

"Jinora-"

"No, listen." Jinora took a deep breath through her nose. "When I got here, there was no one to protect me from him. Every time he lost his temper, it was my ribs or fingers her broke. I was the only one around when he wanted sex, and I was the one who had to walk outside and smile for all the reporters afterwards. And then he announced his engagement to you, and I was scared but I was so, so excited to see you again. So I decided-" Jinora burst into tears and collapsed next to Ikki on the bed. "I decided that I would be a good big sister and protect you from him any way I could. But it worked too well, and now you can't see what a monster he is."

Ikki put her arm around Jinora's shoulder. "Don't cry, please don't cry. You never cry, Jinora. I know Tarrlok's done horrible things, I do. I just don't think he's pure evil."

"You don't have to be pure evil to be a monster." Jinora wiped her nose on her sleeve. "He murdered Dad and Lin in front of us, he took all of Mom's children away from her, he did horrible, awful things to Asami, he's hurt me and you and probably Korra, he rapes Mom and Asami every single day-"

"Stop!" Ikki covered her ears. "What happened to Asami was a long time ago, right around the time he killed Dad. And he killed Dad out of self-defense! Anyways, I'm a completely different person now than I was ten years ago; maybe he's changed, too. And he doesn't do that to Mom and Asami! They just take care of the police officers. It's their job. He doesn't..." She struggled to say the word. "He doesn't rape them!"

"Oh, okay then." Jinora crossed her arms. "He just forces them to have sex they don't want with people they don't like. That's totally different."

"Then it's the police officers who are doing something wrong!"

"Tarrlok is the one threatening to kill Mom and Asami and all the people they love if they don't cooperate! Would it be rape to you if he was holding a knife to Asami's throat while he made Mom have sex with all the police officers? Because that's what he's doing!"

Ikki was crying too now. "It's not like that. Stop saying that."

"You need to listen, Ikki! You need to understand!"

Ikki shook her head. "I hate fighting with you, Jinora. Please, let's just get along. I'll say Tarrlok is an evil monster if it'll make us okay again."

"That's no good!" Jinora cried so hard her cheeks turned red. "You have to really believe it."

"Just please stop crying. I'm sad about Mom too, but-"

"I'm not crying about Mom," Jinora interrupted. "I'm crying because I can't protect you anymore. I love you too much to let him poison your mind like that." She stood up and wiped her face on her sleeves. "I love you, Ikki. If you love me too, please don't do anything that will get you killed."

0~0~0

Ikki cried herself to sleep. Her stomach ached and churned from her fight with Jinora, and it kept waking her up as soon as she got close to a deep sleep.

It felt like she had just managed to finally fall asleep when someone climbed into bed with her. She rolled over and reached out, fingers patting the sheets in search of Jinora's arm. She and Jinora had never been good at staying mad at each other. She would hug Jinora, and they would both say they were really sorry, and they would snuggle together under the sheets just like old times-

"You are awake, then."

Ikki opened both eyes, half-sitting in surprise. "Tarrlok?"

He kissed her forehead. "Go back to sleep. I didn't mean to disturb you."

She scooted towards the wall, making room for him. "You're home early, aren't you? I thought you were Jinora."

He chuckled. "I would hope I'm not so easily confused for my wife. But yes, I am home early. I'm not staying long, though. I have a few meetings to attend tomorrow, and then I have business out of town the day after." He put his arm around her and pulled her close to his front.

"You're not still angry about the tree, are you?" Ikki chewed on her lip. "I'm really sorry for disturbing it."

"I had already forgotten it." He smoothed her hair down. "Consider yourself forgiven. How are your ribs? I hired the best healer in the city."

"I could tell. Thank you, Husband. I'm doing much better."

"Anything for you, my little wife." He kissed the back of her neck, then across the shoulder closer to the ceiling. "Jinora's baby will be born soon."

"Is that where you've been?"

His muscles tensed, like a cat about to pounce, and Ikki threw her arm over her face to shield it from his blow. He snorted and pulled her arm down. "I'm not going to harm you." He kissed her hand. "No need to be so skittish. You just surprised me with your intelligence. Yes, that's where I've been, and that's where I'll be going back to. I can't give you any details, though. The mother-to-be is unwed, so she's been living in seclusion. She's terribly embarrassed by the whole situation."

Ikki didn't have to be an earthbender to know he was lying, but she couldn't say anything. "It's good you're helping her out, then."

"We have an obligation to help those less fortunate than ourselves."

Ikki rolled over to face him and massaged his chest with her fingertips. "It's okay if she's your mistress, you know. I won't say anything if she is."

"What? Who told you that, Ikki?"

She pouted her lips. "What makes you think I didn't come up with it on my own?"

He kissed her. "Never mind. What makes you think the mother is my mistress?"

"You always seem to be in a better mood when you go away on business." Ikki shrugged. "My dad used to come home cranky and cheer up the longer he was with us, not the other way around. And I don't think Jinora and I are nearly as annoying and loud as we were back then." She touched his chin. "Please don't be mad at me. I don't care if you have a mistress. I mean, you already have a second wife."

He rolled on top of her, kissing her just a little too hard. "You are beyond silly." He loosened the front of her robes. "I'll have to do a better job of controlling what you read, since you have such an imagination."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, even while her mind lingered on the question he'd danced around and transformed into a threat. He made love to her just a little too roughly, and all her kisses and caresses and whispered suggestions didn't slow him down. Her discomfort turned to nausea, and she finally had to shove him away.

"I really think I'm going to be sick. Please let me up."

He rolled his eyes as he sat back on his heels. "So dramatic."

Ikki had only just made it to the toilet when the bile and acid forced their way out of her stomach.

Tarrlok stood behind her, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "I should call the healer. You might have some internal damage from your fall."

"No, that's alright. You don't have to. I think I'm just coming down with something." Ikki stood and washed her face in the basin. "I got sick yesterday, too, but I'm fine."

"If you insist." Tarrlok left, closing the door behind him.

By the time Ikki went back to bed, he appeared to be sleeping. She climbed into the outside spot and dozed off again, only to wake up with the sun and scramble for the toilet again.

The doorbell rang while Ikki was still throwing up. Tarrlok pounded on Jinora's door before descending the stairs.

"It's the police," Jinora said from the hallway. "What did you do, Tarrlok?"

"I want both of you wearing your engagement necklaces!" Tarrlok ordered. "Jinora, wear something that makes you look appropriately pregnant."

His feet stomped down the stairs, and a moment later Jinora's softer steps followed. Ikki lay on the bathroom floor for a few moments, trying to catch a few more moments of sleep, until her curiosity kicked in. When she just had to know what was going on, she fastened her engagement necklace, ignored the nausea it brought, and tiptoed down the stairs. Everyone seemed to have congregated in the dining room, so Ikki eavesdropped just around the corner.

"Again, I'm sorry to disturb you and your wife at such an early hour, Chairman. Do you have a few moments?"

"Yes, of course. What's the matter?"

"We have a witness who swears he saw you commit a murder in the Yu Dao mountains late last night."

"Goodness." Tarrlok took a slurp of tea. "Who was murdered?"

"A midwife. We found her body exactly where the so-called witness said we would, so I was sent here to question you."

"Well, that's utterly ridiculous. I do enjoy visiting the Yu Dao mountains on occasion, when I need to distance myself from the stress of my life. I certainly wasn't up there last night, though."

"I'm sorry, but I have to ask: where were you last night? And can anyone vouch for you?"

"I was home all night, of course. My wife is about to give birth to our first child, as you can see. It's very exciting, and I've been home as much as possible the past week."

"Ma'am, was your husband here all night?"

"I have no idea," Jinora said. "I slept alone last night."

"She doesn't like to share the bed now that she's grown so big."

"So there's no one who can verify that you were home last night?"

Adrenaline jolted through Ikki, though she didn't know whether she was more worried about Tarrlok going to jail or him being angry at Jinora when he got out of jail. "He was here all night," she lied, slipping into the dining room. "He slept with me."

The officer bowed. "Ms. Ikki, please come in."

Ikki stood with her back against the wall. The smell of hot noodles turned her stomach. "I didn't sleep well last night. I woke up every hour or so. My husband was there to rub my back every time, so I know her was here all night."

Jinora was giving Ikki a look so venomous that it physically hurt. She drank her tea without taking her eyes off Ikki.

"Well, I have no reason to doubt such a beautiful young woman." The officer bowed. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"It sounds as if this witness was trying to frame me for something, if he didn't commit the crime himself." Tarrlok spooned fruit into his bowl. "Will you please see to it that justice is served for this false accusation?"

"Of course, Chairman. Again, I'm sorry to bother you."

One of the servants showed the officer out. Tarrlok rose and gave Ikki a crushing hug, kissing her forehead. Jinora slammed the dining room door so hard the dishes shivered.

"My perfect little wife," Tarrlok murmured. "Good job."

"You didn't really kill anyone, right?" Ikki asked into his shirt.

"Of course not." He kissed her cheeks. "But I needed an alibi to avoid missing my meeting today. Besides, being arrested is terrible for one's reputation. That fellow was probably trying to pin his own crime on me so my credibility would be destroyed. You may have just saved my career, Ikki. What's your favorite color?"

"Red," Ikki replied. "Why?"

"You'll see."

Ikki awoke from an afternoon nap to the sound of honking outside her window. She sat up and made her way to the window, even though it felt like the air had turned into thick stew. She had to blink a few times before she could process what she saw below.

Tarrlok was sitting in a shiny red Satomobile, honking its horn.

She pried the window open and leaned out of it. "What are you doing?"

"How do you like your present?" Tarrlok was grinning, which was more surprising than even the Satomobile. "Come down and I'll show you how to drive it."

Ikki pulled a dress over her head and shoes on her feet and clattered down the stairs. Jinora, who was peering out the window, glanced at Ikki as she ran by.

"What is this for?" Ikki marveled at the way the red paint gleamed like a ruby in the sunshine.

"You were so convincing this morning." Tarrlok kissed under her ear. "I wanted to show you how pleased I was. Get in, get in."

He scooted over, and Ikki climbed into the driver's seat.

"What if I crash it? What if I push the wrong thing and crash it through the kitchen?"

"You won't, because you'll be doing exactly what I tell you." Tarrlok took her hand and put it on the key. "Just relax and be gentle with the car, and you won't crash it."

He helped her turn the key and coaxed her through shifting and working the pedals. He was surprisingly gentle with her, and Ikki was cruising along the quiet road in front of their house in no time. Tarrlok directed her down a series of progressively rougher roads, until she had to keep from driving into a lake.

"Where are we?" she asked, remembering what Jinora had said last night about Tarrlok killing her.

"Turn the car off."

Ikki did, and Tarrlok got out and fiddled with something in the trunk. When he came to open Ikki's door, he was holding a picnic basket and a blanket. He smoothed the blanket across the grass so close to the water that Ikki could see the ripples each bug made as it landed on the surface. The willow trees shaded them from the sun, and a warm breeze tickled through the grass.

Tarrlok took his shirt off. "Should we have lunch before or after?"

"Before or after what?" Ikki asked.

He kissed down her neck, unbuttoning her dress as he went.

"Oh, that." Ikki must have been blushing. "But what if someone sees us?"

"Then I'll bribe them not to say anything." Tarrlok licked her just above her belly button, making her squirm. "I'm the chairman and you're my wife. I have the right to enjoy you wherever and whenever I please. Lie back and stop thinking so much."

Somewhere in her mind, a voice that sounded very much like Jinora's warned her that Tarrlok was much too relieved by her alibi to be innocent. She didn't care right that moment, though. Her mind was too fuzzy from the beautiful scenery and the muscles in Tarrlok's chest to remember why she was supposed to be hating him so much. It was like Tarrlok had a twin brother with the same name, and one was an evil murderer while the other was a perfect, gentle husband.

He kissed all the way down to her left foot and then back up her right leg. She burrowed her fingers in his hair, warming them there, and tried not to sigh too loudly each time his tongue made her want to cry out. When she was on the edge of losing herself, he rose and lay on top of her.

"You're as beautiful as any princess." His fingers stroked her lips. "I love you so much."

He kept whispering the sweet little words that Ikki wanted to believe as he kissed her neck. He wrapped her legs around his waist and made love to her like a knight claiming a grateful princess, but it was better than any of the romance stories. He nipped at Ikki's neck until her toes curled and her body changed its allegiance to his fingers. It was only once she was thoroughly satisfied that he collapsed, panting, on top of her.

After they'd both had a minute to recover, he rolled onto his back, flipping Ikki onto his chest. "Can I trust you, Ikki?"

She smiled. "Of course."

"Then you'll tell me if Jinora does anything she's not supposed to? She's angry with me, and I worry that she'll try to harm my career in some way. Will you watch her and tell me if she does anything I wouldn't want her to?"

Ikki paused to think about it. "If that would make you happy," she said with another smile. "I only want to make you happy."

"Excellent." He cradled the back of her head and kissed her deeply. "I feel a little better about leaving. You're such a rare treasure."

Sometimes, Ikki couldn't remember what was a lie and what was a truth.


	13. Chapter 13

Tarrlok was gone by the time Ikki woke the next morning. If not for the wrinkled sheets on his side of the bed, she would have wondered if she'd dreamt falling asleep in his arms. She sat up and yawned, and the sickness hit her belly so suddenly she barely made it to the toilet in itme.

Jinora knocked on the bedroom door seconds later, and Ikki weakly invited her in.

"Are you okay?" Jinora asked. There was a hint of real sisterly concern underneath the forced coldness.

"I don't know. I think I'm really, actually sick," Ikki moaned. "I hate germs."

Jinora pressed the back of her hand to Ikki's forehead. "You don't have a fever. Have you been drinking your tea?"

"Yes, every single morning." Ikki glared at Jinora. She didn't want to be cross with her sister, but throwing up so much lately was putting her in a bad mood.

"When was the last time you bled?"

"I don't know, Jinora," Ikki sighed.

Jinora left and came back a moment later dressed in a black cloak. The hood covered half her face. She threw a similar one onto Ikki's leg. "Put it on."

"Where are we going?"

Jinora didn't answer.

Ikki washed her face and pulled the cloak on, and Jinora led her to her new car.

"Can you drive into the city?"

Ikki shrugged. "I guess so. You might have to remind me how to get there."

"That's fine." Jinora climbed into the passenger seat. "Go straight out of the estate and then turn left."

Jinora led Ikki to a restaurant on the edge of the nice part of the city. "Get out," she said. "Take the keys."

Ikki reluctantly left her shiny new car in the parking area. She walked towards the restaurant, and Jinora grabbed the back of her cloak.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jinora demanded. "We're headed this way."

She steered Ikki across the street, into the not-so-good-part of town, and Ikki shivered.

"Where are we going?" Ikki asked again.

"We're visiting someone." Jinora traded her grip on Ikki's shoulders for one on Ikki's hand. "Just walk like you know where you're going. You're drawing attention to us, and that's the last thing we need."

Ikki trailed behind Jinora's long steps, fighting the urge to raise her head and look around at everything. They finally reached the back door of a tall building with bars on the windows. Ikki peered up at it; it seemed to extend for a lot higher than she could see with the cloak blocking her vision.

Jinora slipped down an alley and rapped out a pattern on the side door of the building. It squeaked open a second later, and Jinora tugged Ikki inside. They were suddenly in a huge, stuffy kitchen. The smell of food made Ikki feel sick again, but before she could be overwhelmed, Jinora was pulling at her again. They went up flights of stairs and through twisting corridors until Ikki was thoroughly confused and nauseated. Jinora finally stopped outside a room that looked just like every other room in the building and knocked on the door.

"Come in," said an elderly woman.

Jinora stepped into the room, closed the door, and pulled back her hood. Ikki followed suit. At first she didn't understand why they were in this random woman's room, intruding on the old lady's reading time. And then she realized who the old lady was.

"Gran-Gran!" Ikki threw her arms around her grandmother's neck. "I've missed you so much!"

"Ikki?" Gran-Gran asked in surprise. "Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me!"

"Well, this is a surprise." Gran-Gran kissed Ikki's cheek. "What brings you girls to this part of town?"

"Ikki's been sick," Jinora said. "Since Tarrlok is away, I wanted her to see the best healer in Republic City."

She and Gran-Gran exchanged meaningful looks that Ikki didn't understand.

"I see," Gran-Gran said. "Why don't you sit down and tell me what's bothering you, Ikki?"

Ikki sat on the edge of the bed. "Jinora's making a big deal out of nothing. It's just a little stomach problem."

Gran-Gran's wrinkled hands touched Ikki's forehead, then the bottom part of her stomach. "Have you been drinking your tea every day?"

"Of course," Ikki said. "Why does everyone think I haven't been?"

Gran-Gran patted Ikki's stomach. "Because it seems the tea didn't do its job."

There was silence for a moment. Jinora was the first to break it.

"You can tell just from putting your hand on her?"

"Of course."

Jinora rounded on Ikki. "You must have skipped the tea at least once!"

Ikki's face felt hot as she realized what all the fuss was about. "You've watched me drink it every single morning, Jinora!"

"Did you dump it out while I wasn't looking? Did you make yourself throw it up?"

"No! Why would I do that?" Ikki bit the inside of her mouth to keep from crying.

"You've been doing all sorts of crazy stuff to get on Tarrlok's good side. It's like you doesn't even care that he killed Dad and hurt our entire family. You must have done this on purpose."

"I drank the tea! I drank it every single morning, and no, I didn't throw it up! If I'm having a baby anyways, maybe it was just meant to be."

"Oh, no. You are not throwing your whole life away! Gran-Gran, you have to get rid of it before she tells Tarrlok."

"No!" Ikki shrieked. "You can't!"

"Hush, both of you," Gran-Gran said sharply. "Do you want the nurse to investigate this ruckus? Let's settle this quietly."

The threat of being caught was enough to silence Ikki and Jinora.

"You can't let her have this baby," Jinora whispered. "You know she must have done this on purpose."

"Now, Jinora," Gran-Gran chided. "If the tea always worked, your father wouldn't have been born. If Ikki says she drank her tea, I believe her."

Jinora scowled and said nothing.

"Ikki, why don't you tell me why you feel so strongly about Tarrlok?" Gran-Gran suggested.

Ikki burst into tears. "I just don't think he can be all that bad, and everyone wants me to treat him like, like he's Fire Lord Ozai or something!"

"Even Fire Lord Ozai wasn't completely bad," Gran-Gran said. "Did you know I found his baby pictures once? Fire Lord Zuko's told me stories about the nice things he used to do with his father. Even very evil men aren't completely evil, Ikki."

"Tarrlok's not even committing genocide. He's just a normal guy who did some bad things and makes mistakes sometimes. He's more like Fire Lord Zuko! Shouldn't we give him more chances instead of writing him off as evil?"

Gran-Gran patted Ikki's back. "Ikki, dear, would you say that your dad was a good person?"

"Of course," Ikki said. "He was perfect."

"Not quite," Gran-Gran said. "His heart was good, but his temper could get out of control sometimes."

"What?" Ikki dried her eyes. "I don't remember that."

"Oh, it was quite a problem when he was younger. You were probably too young to remember, Ikki, but your parents had a terrible fight just before Meelo was born. As I recall it, Tenzin got so angry that he shoved your mother into a pillar and left bruises all over her back."

"What?!" Ikki shook her head. "Dad would never, ever do that! Especially not while Mom was pregnant."

"Well, he was under a lot of stress, as I understand it. I know that he felt terrible afterwards and worked very hard to keep his temper from becoming violent."

"So you're saying Tarrlok could be like Dad?" Ikki asked.

"I'm saying that Tarrlok's temper could be like your father's- if he made any efforts to control it," Gran-Gran replied. "The difference between Tarrlok and your father, or between Tarrlok and Fire Lord Zuko, is that Tarrlok doesn't care whom he hurts. No one is completely good or bad, Ikki. But Tarrlok... Tarrlok has had many, many chances, and he's only become increasingly more violent with each chance."

"He is trying," Ikki insisted. "He bought me a car to apologize for hurting me, and he doesn't hurt me more than a normal amount as long as I behave and don't mess things up. And now I'm having his baby, so things will get a lot better!"

Gran-Gran and Jinora exchanged judgmental looks, but Gran-Gran just patted Ikki's shoulder. "I hope you're right, Ikki."

"Do you hear her?" Jinora's eyes were shining with tears. "She's completely brainwashed!"

"Jinora." Gran-Gran stood up and took Jinora's face between her hands. "I know this is hard for you, but you have to look past your own hurt and see things rationally."

"I am seeing things rationally!"

Gran-Gran glanced at Ikki. "Everyone reacts to this sort of thing differently, Jinora. Asami was like an earthbender, making direct strikes and standing her ground until she was shattered by something stronger than her. Your mother thinks like an airbender, pulling herself out of harm's way and escaping in any way she can. You think like a firebender; even though you can dodge like an airbender, you're always plotting a deadly counterattack. And Ikki-" Gran-Gran gestured to Ikki. "Ikki is our waterbender. She can adapt and change form to survive anything the world throws at her. You can't hate her for turning to steam when you would turn to ice, Jinora. All you can do is protect her until she's out of harm's way and can be herself again."

"I try!" Jinora's voice cracked. "I try so hard!" She began weeping. "Everything I've ever done has been to keep her safe."

"I know, sweetheart." Gran-Gran hugged Jinora. "I know."

Ikki couldn't help herself. She hugged Jinora too, resting her head on Jinora's strong shoulder. "I know you would do anything to protect me," she sniffled. "Thanks, Jinora."

They all hugged and cried for a few minutes, and then Jinora started wiping her eyes and it was all over.

"Ikki, you have to promise not to tell Tarrlok we came here," she said sternly. "He'll beat you just as badly as me if he finds out."

"I know that," Ikki said. "I'm not stupid." She didn't try to argue that Tarrlok wouldn't hurt her, because even she couldn't quite believe that yet.

Jinora cleared her throat. "Gran-Gran, are you sure you don't want me to break you out of here?"

"No need, Jinora." Gran-Gran smiled. "I've told you a dozen times, I'll break myself out when the time is right."

"How can you be so calm about staying in an awful place like this?" Ikki asked, forgetting her own sadness for the moment. "Aren't you mad that you got locked up here?"

"The universe has a way of working these things out," Gran-Gran said. "Speaking of good people doing bad things..."

"Not you, Gran-Gran," Ikki protested.

"Yes, me. I'm sure you've both read enough books about me to know I'm just as human as anyone else."

"Huh?" Ikki tilted her head to the side. "I haven't, at least."

Gran-Gran smiled sadly. "When I was young, I was partly responsible for sending another young girl to an insane asylum."

"But that wasn't your fault," Jinora said. "Azula was really crazy."

"Not as much as I let the history books believe," Gran-Gran said. "Truthfully, she was malnourished and sleep-deprived when she had her breakdown, and she would have recovered a lot more quickly without the abuse she suffered in the asylum. And when I got a little older, I realized she had experienced even more abuse from her father than Zuko had. I was crueller than I needed to be, so now I'm happy to sit here and bide my time. Asylums for the elderly aren't as awful as the one we sent Azula to."

"Three years is more than enough time for penance," Jinora said. "You're the only person who stands a chance against Tarrlok."

"Not the only one," Gran-Gran said. "You're better at resisting bloodbending than most waterbenders. Just wait for the right moment, Jinora."

"The right moment for what?" Ikki asked.

"Nothing," Jinora said. "I just don't want him to hurt you."

"He won't, not anymore," Ikki assured her. "Once he finds out I'm having his baby, he won't have any reason to hurt either of us."

Jinora sighed.

"Be patient with your sister," Gran-Gran said, kissing Jinora on the head. "Now both of you should be going. They'll be serving breakfast soon, and they won't be happy to discover you two up here." She kissed Ikki's forehead too, and then hugged them both. "Come visit again soon."


	14. Chapter 14

As it turned out, city streets were a whole lot scarier than country streets, especially during the day. Ikki's fingers just about melded with the steering wheel as she navigated to Mom and Asami's house.

"Park here," Jinora ordered as they neared the house. "There- you can park on the street."

It was early enough that no customers were loitering in the main room. Ikki and Jinora found their mother sweeping the floor with a distracted look on her face. When she saw the two of them, she hastily leaned her broom against the wall and rushed toward the client-bedroom. From the dimness, Ikki heard Asami's pained, whimper-like noises, and then Mom slid the door all the way shut.

"My girls!" she said, only half-forcing her cheerfulness. "What are you doing here, little loves?"

Ikki and Jinora whispered the details of their morning to her while they moved to the kitchen. Mom put water on to make tea and nodded appropriately during the conversation, but her eyes kept flickering to and from the door that hid Asami.

"If that's what makes you happy, then I'm all for it, Ikki," Mom said when they'd finally concluded their tale. "Babies can be wonderful blessings, even when the father isn't the nicest person in the world. You will be a terrific mother."

Ikki beamed at her mother's praise, but she didn't get to bask in it for long. The bedroom door slid open, and a metalbending police officer slinked out, tucking his undershirt in as he went. Mom scurried into the bedroom and stayed there.

"Is she coming back?" Ikki asked Jinora, her voice hushed.

"Give her a minute," Jinora replied. "That was Chief Sun who just left. Asami is the only prostitute in the city who can endure an hour with him without passing out or crying hysterically. Also, he was one of the wardens working at Mako and Bolin's labor camp when Asami tried to bust them out. He got a promotion for helping Tarrlok catch her."

Ikki felt sick again. "Oh."

A few moments later, Mom led Asami from the room. Asami was wearing a green and gold robe with not much underneath it. Her eyes were lined pink and she was walking as unsteadily as a newborn sky bison.

"Good morning, Asami," Jinora said softly. "You look really beautiful today."

"Hi, Jinora." Asami's voice was as shaky as her muscles, but she sounded like she was actually pleased to hear Jinora. "Is Ikki with you?"

"Yup," Ikki said. "Hi. Um, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm great." She waved her hand and knocked a cup onto Jinora's lap. "Well, no, I'm not, but I will be in a few minutes. Sorry. I am happy you're both here, though."

Mom handed Asami a rolled cigarette and then helped her light it. Ikki imagined Mom hidden in the dark room moments earlier, holding Asami and kissing those red marks on both her wrists. Envy burned through Ikki. As sweet as Tarrlok had been to her lately, she still couldn't quite picture him being that tender with her. She sighed and let herself daydream.

Ikki only tuned back into the conversation when she heard her name.

"That's right," Jinora was saying. "Gran-Gran confirmed it."

"I don't understand." Asami massaged her elbow. "I thought you were both drinking a lot of tea."

"I am!" Ikki couldn't help sounding a little defensive. "I mean, I was. But it didn't work, and Gran-Gran said it's not my fault. Sometimes the tea just doesn't work."

"But she's going to take care of everything, right?" Asami asked. "Before Tarrlok finds out?"

"I... I don't know." Ikki played with her hem.

"If you don't want your grandmother to see you in that situation, there's a women's doctor a few blocks away from here," Asami said. "She's a non-bender, but she knows her craft. She's helped me out of trouble a few times. It hurts, but she knows what she's doing, so it's over fast."

Mom put tea down in front of everyone, and Ikki drank hers to avoid having to talk anymore.

"I think Ikki might want to keep the baby," Mom said.

Asami shuddered. "But why?"

"It's her decision to make." Mom took Asami's hand and rubbed it. "It doesn't matter why."

"I know." Asami raised her mug to her lips. "Best of luck, Ikki. But if you change your mind, let me know. I'll go with you."

"Thanks," Ikki said, sure she would never change her mind.

"So, speaking of babies, I think Tarrlok's mistress finally had hers," Jinora said. "The police were investigating a murdered midwife, and Tarrlok was their first suspect. They said they found her body in the Yu Dao mountains."

"The cabin," Asami breathed. "You don't think-?"

"But it was empty when Katara looked," Mom said. "She said she looked in all the windows."

"Maybe he's moved her to the cabin since then," Jinora said. "Or maybe Korra was hidden somewhere Gran-Gran couldn't go. Maybe it's not even Korra. But I bet you that whoever the mistress is, she's living in his cabin now."

Ikki ran her finger along the rim of her teacup, wishing they would explain what they were talking about.

"Should we tell someone?"

"No," Jinora said. "I'll go up there and do some spying. If it is Korra, we'll get Gran-Gran."

"Bring me along if you two go through with the plan," Mom said.

"Me too." Asami rubbed her hands together. "I've been fantasizing about being part of it since he took over."

The bells on the door jingled just then, and everyone went silent. Ikki wondered if people discussed stuff like this often enough that the bells were a necessity. Two uniformed men walked in, so Jinora tugged on Ikki's hand.

"We should go," Jinora whispered. "It stresses Mom out to have us around while she has clients."

"Bye Mom, bye Asami!" Ikki called as they left.

Mom waved, but Asami didn't seem to hear. When Ikki glanced back through the door one last time, Asami was leaning against the door with her arms folded over her robe and her mouth pressed shut so tightly her lips had all but disappeared.

Ikki and Jinora drank green tea and read books by the fire the rest of that day and all of the next. Even though there was still a strain between them, the tightness in Ikki's chest was lessening. They were just talking about going to bed that night when they heard the familiar rumble of Tarrlok's Satomobile.

They greeted him in their robes at the door, more to avoid his temper than because they were particularly excited to see him. Even Ikki was nervous about seeing him again, after her adventure to see Gran-Gran the day before.

He pushed open the door and stepped inside, dripping from the rain. He was holding a satchel in one hand and a bundle of cloth in the other arm.

"Oh, good, you're both here." He set the satchel onthe floor and handed the fabric to Jinora. "Hold your daughter."

Tarrlok didn't catch Jinora rolling her eyes, although Ikki did. Ikki crowded next to Jinora to see the baby. She thought she recognized Korra's facial features in the baby, but she couldn't tell for sure. She'd been seven the last time she'd seen Korra.

"Her name is Nukka," Tarrlok said. "You may give her an Air Nomad middle name if you like, but we're calling her Nukka."

"She definitely looks like a Water Tribe baby," Jinora said. Her voice was carefully neutral. "She doesn't look completely Northern, though. Have you been slipping off to the Southern Water Tribe, my husband?"

"Good eye, my Jinora. But no, I haven't been to the Southern Water Tribe in years. That hellhole is the last place I would go to relax."

"How will we feed her?" Ikki asked.

"I've arranged for a wet nurse to move in," Tarrlok said. "She'll live in one of the downstairs bedrooms. You shouldn't have to see her unless you're handing the baby to her. The servants will get her situated later tonight." He began climbing the stairs.

"Great." Jinora handed the baby to Ikki. "I suppose this means I won't be leaving the house for the next month."

"Yeah, everyone will expect you to sit the month with baby Nukka," Ikki said. "Don't worry, Jinora. I'll keep you company. And I'm sure Mom and Asami will come visit. You'll be out of the house again before you know it."

"Oh, that reminds me." Tarrlok stopped on the stairs. "I heard the funniest thing from my friend, Doctor Yang."

Jinora's face went completely white, but she managed to smooth her expression quickly. "Doctor Yang? Gran-Gran's doctor?"

"He is. He told me earlier today that he caught a glimpse of you outside your grandmother's room the other day, Jinora. I told him he must be mistaken; I know you're much too well-behaved to go sneaking off to the asylum without my permission."

Jinora glanced at the door like she might take off through it. "Yes, Husband."

Tarrlok stepped down from the stairs and stood up as tall as he could, towering well above the top of Jinora's head.

"Still, it's funny he would mistake someone else for you. He knows you pretty well. You wouldn't lie to me, Jinora, would you?"

Tarrlok backed Jinora all the way up against the wall, and Ikki could practically feel the anger quivering in his muscles from across the room. He grabbed Jinora's arm and yanked her towards him, making her cry out.

"Wait!" Ikki cried. "Please don't hurt Jinora. She did take me to Gran-Gran, but only because I begged her to."

"What?" Tarrlok whipped around, dropping Jinora's hand. "Why would you want to see that old witch?" He laughed at the idea.

"Because-" She took a deep breath, holding the baby closer to her face in the hopes that Tarrlok wouldn't risk hitting the baby. "Because I figured out that I was pregnant that morning, and I really wanted Gran-Gran to do a Southern Water Tribe tradition to tell me if I was going to give you a son or a daughter."

Tarrlok froze, then his arms fell to his sides. "You're pregnant?"

Ikki nodded. He rushed over to her, causing her to flinch, but he only pulled her against his chest and kissed her head. Ikki wrapped her arms around the baby to protect her from getting crushed.

"Both of my little wives, pregnant in the same year," Tarrlok said with an amused look on his face. "I'm so pleased. No more sneaking off, though. If you want to see your grandmother, you can visit her with me." He kissed down Ikki's jaw. "Now, be a good girl and let me talk to Jinora alone."

Ikki wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to do, so she sat down in a chair and patted the baby's back until it fell asleep. There was lots of shouting from upstairs- all of it Tarrlok- and then there was a thud so loud that the baby startled awake and cried like a hungry cat. Ikki shushed the baby and then crept upstairs so she could eavesdrop.

"It can't hurt that badly," Tarrlok was saying. "Stop being such a baby."

"It _really_ hurts, and I think you broke my ankle." It sounded like Jinora was crying, which scared Ikki. "I can't move my foot."

"Good. Maybe you won't go wandering off anymore."

"I'm sorry! How many times do I have to say it? I'm sorry! Ow, ow, please let go of my arm-"

"I will not have you trying to start a revolution on me!" Tarrlok's voice lowered. "I have worked too hard to get to this point."

"I wasn't trying to do anything like that," Jinora said. "I was just trying to celebrate with Ikki... to show her I don't hate her for getting pregnant before me. Please, Tarrlok, ow..."

"You should have known better." There was a slapping sound that made Ikki wince. "How many times do we have to have this same fight? You can visit your mother whenever you want. You can't visit the old hag without permission." There was another slapping sound. "Will a fourth lesson even make a difference? I don't know what to do with you!"

Ikki couldn't handle it anymore. She knocked on the door, which made the baby fuss again. Good, she thought.

"What is it?" Tarrlok snapped from behind the door.

"I think the baby is hungry, and I don't have any milk for her," Ikki said. She tried to make up an excuse the way Jinora had, but she wasn't smart enough. "And also, um, I really miss you. You've been gone so much lately, and now you're locked in Jinora's room, and I'd really like to lie down with you. I haven't been sleeping well without you, and I know it's not good for our baby. Please, Husband?"

There was a moment of silence, and then the door opened. "Only for you," he said, cupping Ikki's face in his hands and kissing her forehead.

Ikki glanced past him and saw Jinora curled up on the floor. Ikki pulled Tarrlok into the other bedroom and lay as quietly as she could in his arms, listening until the servants came to tend to Jinora. When they knocked on the door, presumably for Nukka's feeding, Tarrlok raised his head groggily. Ikki kissed him and murmured to him to go back to sleep. Baby in arms, she climbed over him and opened the door.

"Is my sister okay?" she whispered as she handed over the baby.

The new wet nurse, who looked a little younger than Ikki's mom, nodded but didn't speak. Tarrlok rolled over in the bed, so Ikki quickly closed the door and climbed back in next to him.

0~0~0

Tarrlok woke early the next morning. He kissed Ikki until she woke up as well, told her that he was going to work, and then left her in the bed. She lay there for a few minutes, trying to convince her grumbling stomach to let her go back to sleep. She finally dragged her aching body to the toilet so she could throw up and then splashed water on her face. After peeking out the window to make sure Tarrlok's car was gone, Ikki pulled a robe on and knocked on Jinora's door.

"Come in," Jinora said.

Ikki slipped inside and found Jinora composing a letter at her desk. She was writing in the secret language that women taught each other, which immediately caught Ikki's interest. Jinora's foot was wrapped in white cloth, and the side of her lower lip was swollen and scabbed over.

"I have a job for you," Jinora said, eyes never leaving the paper. "I need you to drive a letter to some friends of ours."

She sprinkled sand across the page, blew on it, and then rolled it into a scroll. She wrapped a ribbon around it and tied a Pai Sho tile under the bow. "There's a huge house- you'll find it if you take the road through the market district, heading south. It will have Fire Nation flags on it and a turtleduck pond in front. Show the Pai Sho tile to whomever opens the door, but only give the letter to one of the old ladies living there."

"Huh?" Ikki said. "Why?"

"Just do it." Jinora looked up at her, and Ikki saw the tired circles under her eyes. "Be home before Tarrlok, if you can. I'll take care of the baby."

"Okay, I'll try." Ikki took the letter. "Do you want me to bring back a healer afterwards?"

Jinora shook her head. "Just the letter. Make sure, no matter what, that one of the old ladies gets it."

Ikki saluted her sister.


	15. Chapter 15

The house was a lot easier to find than Ikki had expected, assuming there was only one house with Fire Nation flags and a turtleduck pond. She pulled into the driveway, behind the three other shiny Satomobiles, and then hopped out and knocked on the front door.

A girl about Ikki's age, clad in a serving girl's uniform, answered the door. "Yes?" she asked.

"Um, here." Ikki fumbled with the Pai Sho tile. "I'm supposed to give this to someone."

"Oh!" the girl said, her eyes widening. "Yes, of course. Please come in. I'll get my mistresses."

Ikki stared all around her while she waited. The house was beautiful, but it wasn't overly shiny with treasure. The only decorations were a dozen cat statuettes and a few portraits of the Fire Nation royal family (Ikki thought she recognized them as the current Fire Lord, her father, and her father's uncle, but she had never been strong in Fire Nation history).

"Another initiate?" A petite, white-haired old woman sighed. Her stride was so quiet that Ikki hadn't heard her come in. She squinted and looked Ikki up and down. "Well? What do you want, child?"

"Come on, there's no need to be rude to her," said another old woman. "She looks kind of... lost." This lady was taller and curvier, and her hair was streaked grey and silver. She walked with a cane and leaned against the door jamb when she stopped moving.

"You know how I feel about having my morning tea disturbed," the first woman said. "Well? What are you here for, little girl?"

Ikki bowed and then held Jinora's letter up. The short woman snatched it, unrolled it, and squinted at it.

"I can't read it without my glasses," she finally declared.

"Bring it here," said the other. "I'll read it."

The short woman obliged, and Ikki held her breath so she didn't miss a word.

"'To Any Grandmasters of the Order of the White Lotus: I believe the Lion Turtle is being held against her will in a cabin in the Yu Dao mountains. I am too injured to journey there to confirm. Please take this message to Grandmaster Katara and assist with her escape from the asylum, if necessary. The wolf returns to Yu Dao. If Grandmaster Katara can heal and accompany me, I will end this tonight or die trying.' It's signed, 'Air Lotus.'"

"About damn time," the short woman muttered. "Well, you're in no shape to storm an asylum, not with your arthritis flaring up so badly this morning. I suppose I'll have to do it."

"I know how you feel about asylums," said the taller one. "Maybe Suki can do it. Is she back in town yet?"

"No, she's still off in the middle of nowhere. I'll be fine. You worry too much. I can handle being inside an asylum, as long as I'm only there to melt locks and kick in doors."

She disappeared and came back dressed in black robes and a pair of gold glasses.

"Be careful." The other woman gave her a one-armed hug, not taking the weight off her cane. "Try not to get into any fights with Katara."

"She's no match for me anymore, and she knows it." The short one smiled, the first Ikki had seen since she'd gotten there. "But don't worry. I only intend to attack doctors and nurses and guards. I won't be gone long."

They kissed, and then the short woman strode out the front door.

"Are you friends with my Gran-Gran?" Ikki asked.

The woman with the cane winked at Ikki. "All old people know each other. Didn't you know that? Now, did you need anything else? Can I get you a cup of tea?"

Ikki shook her head. "No, I should really get back to Jinora. Wait, who should I tell her I gave the letter to?"

"Tell her that you gave the letter to Ty Lee, and that Azula went to break your Gran-Gran out of the asylum."

"General Azula?" Ikki asked, her mouth falling open. "Fire Lord Zuko's sister?"

The woman- Ty Lee- giggled. "The one and only. Are you sure you don't need anything, sweetie?"

Ikki ended up returning home two hours later with a package of sweet cakes and three books: _Strategy and Opportunity_ by General Azula (for Jinora), Ty Lee's favorite romance novel (for Ikki), and _The Aunt's Guide to Caring for Babies_ (for both sisters).

Tarrlok was still gone when Ikki came home, and Jinora was lying on her sofa with her ankle propped on a stack of pillows. She pushed herself up on her elbows when Ikki came in.

"Did you do it?" she asked. "What took you so long? I thought something happened to you."

"I gave it to Ty Lee, and then General Azula went to go-" Ikki glanced at the wet nurse, who was sitting just close enough that she might be within earshot. "-to go do the errand," she finished. "Then Ty Lee and I ended up talking and drinking tea and she gave me all these books." Ikki put the books and sweetcakes next to Jinora. "She said I reminded her a lot of herself when she was my age. Can you believe it? She's so cool, even though she's, like, as old as Gran-Gran! She said her fighting style was based on airbending, and she would teach me some tricks if I ever came over on a day when her arthritis wasn't hurting her."

Jinora smiled through her split lip. "Good."

"Now what?" Ikki asked. "Do we plan? Get ready?"

"We read," Jinora said, opening _Strategy and Opportunity_. "Read and wait for Tarrlok to leave town again."

0~0~0

Tarrlok returned home shortly before dinner. He didn't say much, except that Jinora looked "Disgraceful" before he healed her face and ankle with waterbending. Then he was off again, tossing a bag into his car and kissing Ikki on the forehead. Ikki pouted, but she was getting used to him leaving all the time. Tarrlok's car had barely driven away before Jinora ran upstairs and began packing a bag.

"Where are you going?" Ikki asked. "Won't Tarrlok be mad and hurt you again?"

"With any luck, he won't even have a chance." Jinora tossed knives- knives Ikki wouldn't have guessed she had- into her bag. "Why? Would you tell on me?"

Ikki thought back, again, to what Tarrlok had asked her to do, and then shook her head. "No. Where are you going?"

"On a secret mission."

"Can I come?"

"No."

"Aww, Jinora! Why not?"

"Because you're pregnant. And because I don't trust you not to mess things up."

Ikki's lips twitched and her eyes burned. "I wouldn't mess things up! I want to be with you for the secret mission. Why can't I come?"

Jinora sighed. "Look, Ikki, you love Tarrlok, right?"

Ikki shrugged. "I think so."

"And you love me?"

"Of course."

"Well, things might get bad," Jinora said. "There could be a fight, and either you'll have to watch your husband kill your sister or vice versa. I don't want you to feel like you have to pick a side, or for you to be sad for the rest of your life because you had to watch that."

Ikki felt like her throat was caving in. She threw her arms around Jinora's shoulders. "Don't leave me here!" she sobbed. "I don't want to sit around here while people I love are dying! Jinora, please take me with you. I won't mess anything up. I just can't stay here alone while you go off and do this."

Jinora sighed, pursing her lips. "Fine, okay, you can come. But don't do anything. Stay where I tell you to stay and don't interfere, no matter what happens."

"I promise."

There was a knock at the back door. "You can drive us," Jinora said, bounding down the stairs on her newly-healed ankle. "That will make things easier, anyways."

Gran-Gran was standing at the back door. Jinora ushered her up to the bedroom before any of the servants could see, and Ikki hugged Gran-Gran tightly.

"Well," said Gran-Gran. "You look much better than I expected, Jinora. Are you girls ready for this?"


	16. Chapter 16

Jinora had Ikki pick up Mom and Asami first, and then the five of them began their journey into the Yu Dao mountains. Gran-Gran gave Ikki directions. Ikki's hands were so sweaty she was afraid they would slip off the steering wheel while she was navigating the twisty mountain road.

"I still think this is a bad idea," Asami said. She was talking about Ikki coming along, most likely, but no one was saying that out loud.

"I won't help Tarrlok," Ikki said. "I won't even watch. I just need to be close to you guys when... while..." she cleared her throat. "Are General Azula and Ty Lee going to help us on the secret mission?"

"Azula might," Gran-Gran said. "It's hard to say exactly what she'll do. She does things if she thinks they'll help her and Ty Lee, or because she's bored. I don't know what her mindset is right now. Ty Lee retired from fighting a few years ago, so I doubt we'll see her."

There were so many things Ikki wanted to ask Gran-Gran about the old-people club she seemed to be in, but Gran-Gran suddenly said, "This is it. Pull over here."

They all sat in the Satomobile for a moment, staring up at the cabin. Tarrlok's Satomobile was parked in front of it.

"This is really it." Jinora said, opening up her bag. "We're really doing this. Okay, Mom, Asami, stay with Ikki until- unless we give the signal. I don't know if we'll make it, and if not, I want the three of you to get out of here as fast as possible. I don't like my odds."

"But you know how to avoid bloodbending," Ikki reminded her.

"Yeah, after three years of begging him to bloodbend me every chance I get, and I'm still not very good," Jinora said. "I don't think airbenders are even supposed to be able to resist bloodbending, except that I have Gran-Gran's blood in me."

"I'll be there too," Gran-Gran reminded her. "I believe this is our destiny. You have to have some hope, Jinora."

Jinora nodded and tucked a half dozen different knives into her belt. "I'm ready."

Gran-Gran and Jinora snuck inside the cabin, while Mom guided Asami and Ikki to the side of the house. They sat against the wall and listened. Ikki could hear someone crying inside the house and glanced up at Mom. Mom put her finger over her lip.

"What is wrong with me?" a woman wailed. "Why am I so awful at everything that should come naturally to me? I'm the worst avatar ever, I mean, come on- a non-bending avatar?! And I can't even have a baby without it being born small and sick and then dying! I thought... I thought having the midwife would make things better!" She began sobbing too hard to talk anymore.

"Shh," Tarrlok said. "Here, let me hold you. Shh, it will be alright."

"No, it will never be alright! It hasn't been alright since... since..." she took a shuddering breath. "When you delivered our son, when he came out too early, I thought I was going to die too. It was so long ago, but I remember you were all covered with my blood, and I thought, 'Well, at least the next avatar can have a shot.' I wanted to die with him. But you didn't let me. And then Nukka came when she supposed to, and she was so healthy, and I thought I would finally be happy again. How could she die? She didn't look sick! She seemed so healthy..."

"We'll have another baby someday, Korra," Tarrlok tried to soothe her. "We'll have a healthy baby. I swear."

"I wan't see her body. I want to bury her properly."

"She died of an infection, Korra. I would be devastated if you caught her illness and became sick as well. You're weak from childbirth right now. The doctor gave her a Fire Nation burial."

There was a loud creak from the floorboards, and everyone froze.

"What was that?" Korra asked. "Assassins?"

"I think it was just the house settling," Tarrlok said. "I didn't hear any footsteps."

"I've just, I've been remembering when Amon came here," Korra said. "I dream about him every night. About him taking my bending away. I keep thinking he's coming back to finish me."

"He's dead, Korra. Do you also dream about how we fought him together? About how I broke free of his bloodbending and killed him for harming you like that?"

"I know. I know you would never let anyone hurt me. Has... has anyone said anything lately? About the new avatar?"

"They're still looking. No one agrees on whether you're dead or not."

"But they'll still kill me if I ever come out of here."

"Yes," Tarrlok said. "I'm afraid so."

Ikki gave Mom a confused look, but Mom wasn't paying attention. Why did Tarrlok think people wanted to kill Korra? No one thought that, not as far as Ikki knew.

"I'm going to live here until the day I die. I might as well just... kill myself now..."

"Korra!" Tarrlok sounded like he was choking. "Korra, you can't talk like that."

"But my babies," Korra sniffed. "My bending... I've been locked up for my own protection my entire life, and it's never going to change. The only thing that's changed is that I've lost my bending and both of my children. I have nothing to live for. Things will only get worse..."

"Some day we'll figure out an escape," Tarrlok said. "Maybe some day people won't want to kill you and you can live anywhere you please. But it's too dangerous for now, my love. You have to stay here for now. You have to stay alive and think about all the things you'll do as soon as we find an escape. We'll find a doctor to restore your bending, and we'll find an expert healer to help with your pregnancies. Please, Korra. Please don't try to hurt yourself again. I love you. I love you so, so very much."

"I know," Korra said. "I love you too."

There was silence for a long while, then another, softer creak of the floorboards.

"She didn't seem sick, though," Korra said out of nowhere. "She didn't, she- she just didn't. She didn't nurse well, but... but I thought... the midwife said... oh, Nukka!" Korra cried again.

"I know, Korra. But she's dead. I'm sorry."

"Funny," Jinora's voice spoke up. "She didn't look dead when I held her a few hours ago. In fact, she looked perfectly healthy."

Everyone went tense. Ikki held her breath.

"Jinora!" Tarrlok must have jumped up. "What are you doing here?"

"Telling Korra the truth," Jinora said. "Hi Korra. It's nice to finally see you again."

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Don't you remember me? I'm Tenzin's daughter. Aang and Katara's granddaughter."

"No. No, I remember Tenzin's daughters. They were little and had short hair."

"I grew up, and my hair grew out. Korra, Tarrlok's been lying to you. Nukka isn't dead. She's at my house. And no one wants to kill you. Everyone has been mourning your disappearance. You would make the world incredibly happy if you showed up again."

"Don't listen to her," Tarrlok said. "She's an Equalist."

Jinora laughed. "No, look, I'm an airbender!" Ikki heard a swirl of wind. "No one wants to kill you, Korra. And even if anyone did, the Order of the White Lotus would protect you."

"Go away! No one is supposed to know I'm here!" Korra sounded like she was becoming hysterical. "I don't know you. I don't know you! Go away! Please, just go away and don't tell anyone I'm here. Tarrlok, you said you would protect me-"

"Oh, I will." Tarrlok growled.

There was a scuffle from inside the house. Every muscle in Ikki's body went rigid. She would have given anything in the world to be able to see what was happening.

"That's impossible!" Tarrlok's voice accompanied the sound of something wooden breaking. "You're not even a waterbender. How can you do that?"

"Lots of practice," Jinora said. "Being Katara's granddaughter doesn't hurt, either."

All the sounds mixed together: Tarrlok swearing, Korra shrieking, wind whistling through the house. Finally, everything stopped except for Korra's screams, and Ikki heard Gran-Gran's voice underneath them.

"Hello there. Do you remember me, Korra?"

Korra fell silent, and then- "Katara? Master Katara?"

"Yes, Korra. I've been so worried about you. Are you alright?"

Korra was crying again, and then there was a sharp whistle. Mom stood up and pulled Asami onto her feet.

"That's our sign," she said.

Ikki followed them inside the house, then down the stairs to the basement. It was decorated Southern Water Tribe style, with furs and sticks making up the furniture, and it even had a kitchen and a fireplace installed. Korra was hidden in Gran-Gran's arms in one corner. On the other side of the room, Jinora was straddling Tarrlok's chest. His hands were iced to the floor, and he was staring up at the ceiling in a daze.

"What happened to him?" Ikki asked.

"Ty Lee isn't the only one who can chi-block," Jinora said. She was playing with one of her knives. "Mom, Asami, want to help?"

"Korra, let's go upstairs," Gran-Gran said.

"No... Tarrlok... don't hurt him! Please, I love him."

"If you really love her back, tell her the truth." Jinora bared her teeth at Tarrlok. "Tell her what really happened to Nukka. Tell her that no one wants to kill her."

Tarrlok sighed and closed his eyes. "I lied, Korra. I was afraid you would leave me, and I didn't want you to get hurt, with your bending gone. No one wants to kill you, or at least no one that I know of. I took Nukka to Jinora and Ikki. I didn't want our daughter to grow up underground. I wanted her to have a normal life. Forgive me."

Korra covered her mouth and shook her head. "He's lying. He's only saying that because you have a knife."

Tarrlok sighed again. "No, Korra. It's true. I'm... sorry. I only did it because I love you. The thought of being without you..."

"Come on, Korra," Gran-Gran urged. "Let's take you upstairs. Would you like to see Baby Nukka? She's not far away. Let's go upstairs and make some tea."

Once Korra was upstairs and the door to the basement was closed, Mom and Asami closed in on Tarrlok.

"What do you think?" Mom murmured. "Would you like me to cut out his eyes for you, Asami?"

"I have dibs on his manhood." Jinora held up a scary-looking water tribe knife. "And his tongue, too, I think."

She cut a deep line in his cheek. When Tarrlok snarled at her, she jabbed a finger into his throat, rendering him mute.

"'Oh, stop being such a baby!'" She threw his words from the night before back at him. "'It can't possibly hurt that much!'"

Ikki managed to watch most of the torture, but she threw up when Mom gouged out Tarrlok's eyes and guided Asami's fingers into the empty sockets.

"Go upstairs, Ikki," Jinora said for the third time, but Ikki couldn't bring herself to move.

It wasn't until they began sawing off his fingers that Ikki fled upstairs. It wasn't that Tarrlok didn't probably deserve it, as romantic as his love for Korra was- Ikki's stomach just couldn't handle any more. She was already going to have nightmares for years.

Upstairs, Korra was sitting on the couch, wrapped tightly in Gran-Gran's arms.

"Is Tarrlok okay?" Korra sniffed. "Please don't hurt him. He's not that bad. He loves me... and I love him... he only lied to me because he couldn't bear the idea of losing me. Is he okay?"

Korra, who had lived underground for the past ten years without a glimpse of sunlight, was concerned about the man who had done all that to her in the name of love.

"Um, I think so," Ikki lied. "He feels really bad about doing all of this to you. And he feels really bad about hurting Jinora and Asami and my mom. They're talking about it right now."

They sat in silence until the other three members of their party came up. Their clothes were wet, and Asami's dress looked bloodstained underneath the coat she'd put on.

"Tarrlok?" Korra asked, clutching Katara's wrinkled hands.

"He couldn't live with the pain and guilt of knowing how much he hurt you," Jinora said. "He killed himself to end his dishonor."

Korra collapsed against Gran-Gran. "No... no, no, no... Tarrlok..."

"He wants you and Nukka to have his house and most of his money," Jinora continued. "He wants you two to start a new life together. I promised I would make sure you were taken care of."

"I think he was my soulmate," Korra wept. "He shouldn't have done that. It was so stupid, so needless. But it sounds like something he would do. He loved me so much..."

Everyone nodded sympathetically, and within ten minutes they'd managed to talk Korra into Ikki's car. If Azula showed up, she would find the cabin empty except for Tarrlok's chopped up corpse.

-End-


	17. Chapter 17: Epilogue

A few days later, Korra reclined against the trunk of an Air Temple Island lychee tree, cradling her whining baby against her bosom.

"I don't understand what I'm doing wrong." Korra's forehead wrinkled. "Why is this so hard for me? Am I just the worst mother ever?"

"Move her this way," Gran-Gran said softly. She cradled the newborn's head in one hand and adjusted Korra's breast with the other.

Korra flinched at the touch, but Ikki had noticed that Korra was becoming less skittish every day she was on Air Temple Island. Baby Nukka latched onto Korra's nipple and stopped fussing.

"There," Gran-Gran said. "It just takes practice for both of you."

Korra beamed down at the feeding infant. "She's so beautiful. I love her so much. I can't believe I'm holding her, feeding her..."

Ikki jumped down from the tree, landing next to Korra with her skirt full of lychee nuts. "Lychee time!" she called. Mom and Asami stopped kissing and whispering to each other and came up to Ikki, who portioned out several of the little fruits to everyone.

"Here, Korra," she said, peeling one and giving the clear fruit to the avatar.

Korra took a bite, dripping juice onto her breast and laughing. "I haven't had lychee since... since... however long I was in hiding," she said. "I forgot how it tasted."

Jinora returned just then with a green-eyed man. Ikki didn't recognize him. He was thin, especially in the face, but he still rippled with muscles. He looked like someone who had spent a lot of years doing hard labor without quite enough food.

"Hey, look who was hanging out at the prison," Jinora announced, and everyone (except Asami) turned to stare.

The man's eyes seemed less than friendly, maybe even a little hostile, and his arms bore prison tattoos. He looked kind of scary. Nevertheless, he fell on his hands and knees and bawled when he saw Korra and her baby.

"Bolin?" Korra asked. It was the first time she'd recognized anyone (except for Gran-Gran) on her own, without them being re-introduced to her first.

"Korra!" Bolin crawled over to her, hugging her and the baby both. "We thought you were dead. I thought I'd never see you again! And you have a baby! You have a gorgeous, hungry little baby!" Snot ran down his nose. He leaned back to wipe it on his sleeve, and saw Asami and Mom. "Asami!" He lost the little bit of composure he had left. "Asami! You're okay, too?" He covered his face with his hands, his whole body shaking. "This is the happiest day of my entire life. I thought... I remember... I tried so hard to protect you both, and I couldn't-"

Asami knelt next to him, and the three of them-four, if you counted Nukka- all hugged and cried together for a long time.

Jinora stood next to Ikki, observing the scene. "How are you feeling?" she asked softly. "How is the bleeding?"

"Almost finished, I think." Ikki watched Bolin stroke Nukka's face, feeling a weird tornado of emotions inside her chest. "I'm okay. I know I made the right choice. Seeing what Tarrlok did to Korra- and how Korra loved him even after what he did- it just made me feel... I just knew I couldn't go through with it. I'm not ready to be a mom. And Gran-Gran was right about me being a waterbender on the inside. I didn't even realize how scared of Tarrlok I was until I knew he couldn't hurt me anymore."

Jinora linked her arm through Ikki's. "So, now that you're not having Tarrlok's baby, what are you planning on doing instead?"

"Traveling," Ikki said. "I want to see the entire world. General Azula is going to be traveling on White Lotus business now that Republic City is in good hands. Ty Lee invited me to go with them. She said she has a lot to teach me. What are you going to do?"

Jinora smiled. "I'm going to go pull Meelo out of boarding school and take him home to Mom. Then I'm going to run the city, exactly like Tarrlok's will said I should."

They both snorted with laughter, remembering the perfectly forged document Jinora had "found" in Tarrlok's desk. No one had even questioned it, especially not after pieces of Tarrlok had showed up in the river.

"You're going to be the best dictator ever, Jinora," Ikki said. "You can name the city after yourself, if you ever go mad with power."

"Oh, I plan on delegating," Jinora said. "I want a council, like we used to have, but with some non-benders on it. And I have other ideas for running the city, but I don't want to bore you."

"I wish you could come with me when I travel."

"I will, eventually." Jinora reached up and patted Ikki on the head. "Once I earn some vacation time. Then it'll be you, me, and all the hot boys we can find on Ember Island."

They watched their now-family catching up with their then-family, everyone explaining where they'd been since Tarrlok had taken over. Jinora finally wiped her nose and turned around.

"Time to go get Meelo," she said, clearing her throat.

Ikki didn't ask if she could come along this time. She simply popped open her glider and followed Jinora through the air, over Yue Bay, until they landed in front of Ikki's Satomobile on the mainland.

"Sister road trip!" Ikki shouted as she started the car. "Yeah!"

"Brace yourself, Meelo!" Jinora yelled, laughing. "We're going to hug you so much you won't be able to breathe for a month!"

And then they were off, Chairwoman Jinora and World Traveler Ikki speeding down the roads that led away from Republic City.


	18. Appendix A: The Tale of Jinora

The day before Jinora's wedding, she decided to visit her favorite prostitute. She'd only been back in Republic City for two weeks, but she'd already memorized the way to the brothel. The bells on the door jingled cheerfully as Jinora walked in.

"Jinora!" Mom dropped the dishes she was cleaning into the sink and ran over to hug Jinora with soapy hands. "What are you doing here? I thought you would be getting ready for your wedding."

"I was-I am, but I have some questions," Jinora said. "About... sex."

Mom's muscles tensed visibly, her hands clasping together. "Sure, Jinora," she said. "What do you want to know?"

Jinora took a deep breath. "Where are my legs supposed to go? How do I avoid getting pregnant? Exactly how much blood will there probably be, and will he mad at me if there's not enough?"

Mom flushed, which surprised Jinora; she'd imagined working as a prostitute would make sex a less embarrassing topic of conversation.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay." Jinora turned to leave. "I think I've mostly figured it out. Sorry."

"No, wait." Mom caught Jinora by the fingers. "I'll try to answer your questions, but I'm not sure I have the answers to some of them."

She sat down on the cushions around her little table, and Jinora joined her.

"You can avoid getting pregnant with a special tea," Mom said. "There are other methods, but I think he would notice any of them. Asami and I have more than enough to share. I'm not sure how much blood there will be for you, or if he'll hurt you, and where your legs go depends on what position he wants you in, and..." she trailed off. "You know, Jinora, you'll probably be happiest if you start meditating as soon as you lie down and let him do whatever he wants. You've always been good at meditating and getting lost in your mind. I'm sorry. I wish I had better advice."

"It's okay," Jinora said. "Thanks, Mom. I love you. I'll see you at the wedding."

She kissed Mom's cheek and hurried out of the house before things could get any more awkward. She took the streetcar home. She was about to trudge up to the pathetic little library, where she'd spent most of her days since coming to the house, and then had an idea. She made her way to the kitchen instead.

The servants were joking around, as usual, and they fell silent when Jinora walked in.

"Good morning, little bride-to-be," said the head cook. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

Jinora made sure the kitchen door was closed, braced herself, and said, "Where do the legs go when people are having sex?"

The servants burst into laughter, but even as they did, they pulled Jinora closer to the chopping board and began tying bits of carrots into tiny little models.

0~0~0

Jinora was woken by two older women she'd never met before. They fixed her hair and makeup without conversation. When Jinora arrived at her wedding, she couldn't find a single familiar face in the crowd. She converted the anxious, lonely feeling in her stomach to anger. By the time Tarrlok took her hand, she was ready to break his fingers.

"You said Ikki and Meelo would be here," Jinora said under her breath. "You said my mom would be here."

"I said that before you decided to have your little... episode at the tailor's," Tarrlok said. He was referring, of course to her walking out of her dress fitting a week earlier in order to keep from breaking down in front of the entire shop. "I'm sure you'll behave better in the future."

The glare she gave him must have been utterly venomous, because he suddenly looked uneasily around the room of guests. It was at that moment that Jinora realized the power she now held. Tarrlok could beat her, hurt her family, and have her locked in jail for the rest of her life, but she knew what his greatest fear was. Better still, she had everything she needed to make it a reality: a room full of people who would be shocked to hear how much she despised him.

She snatched her hands out of his and folded her arms, turning her back on him. To her delight, several people noticed, including the chief of police and the Fire Lord's oldest daughter. She could practically feel Tarrlok sweating next to her.

"Don't even think about it," he said into her ear. "I can have your whole family killed in front of you."

"Yes, but the damage would still be done, wouldn't it?" she whispered back. "Your whole precious image would be destroyed if all these people found out you had to blackmail me into marrying you. In fact, killing my family would just prove the accusation. I can't help what I say; I'm just a silly woman. I'm so upset that my family's not here that any second now I might start crying and accidentally tell everyone my reasons for marrying you. All these reporters and important peoeple make me nervous..."

He ground his teeth so hard they creaked. "What do you want?

"My mom. I want to be able to see her any time I want. And I want her here at my wedding."

"Fine." Tarrlok gestured to a servant and whispered in his ear.

"And I want more books," Jinora continued when he turned his attention back to her. "I've already read everything you have."

"As many books as you want," Tarrlok said. "Now smile and uncross your arms."

Jinora inhaled deeply and then exhaled all her anger. She smiled and offered him her hand. He was probably going to make her pay for this later, but she was pretty sure it would be worth it. There was no way she would be able to survive without books and at least one family member.

She was the perfect bride the rest of the wedding, especially once Mom showed up. In fact, she played her role so well that Tarrlok seemed to be in a much better mood by the time the festivities wound down several hours later. The kiss Mom placed on Jinora's forehead helped her to stay compliant as her new husband picked her up and carried her up out to his Satomobile. The short ride across town was a quiet one.

"This is your official room," Tarrlok said, pulling open one of the two doors on the upstairs hallway. "That one is for your sister."

Jinora was still too busy waiting for him to slap her or otherwise teach her a lesson. He seemed more interested getting her clothes off than smacking sense into her. She went along with it, helping him remove the layers and layers weighing her down. When she was practically naked, he stepped back and looked her over like she was a vase at the market. He must have liked what he saw, because he stepped forward and pulled her into a kiss. There was entirely too much tongue and teeth in the kiss, in Jinora's opinion, but she didn't possess a wealth of kissing experience to know for certain. He held her head in place and more or less did all the kissing, which suited Jinora just fine. Her lips felt too clumsy against his.

Eventually, he began removing his own clothing. Jinora shut her eyes at first, refusing to look, but her curiosity eventually got the better of her. She pulled away and glanced down, chewing on the inside of her lip to keep from chattering away like Ikki.

"Do you like what you see?" Tarrlok asked. He had an annoying grin on his face that reminded Jinora of the arrogant pro-bending boys in the newspaper pictures.

Jinora didn't have anything to compare him to, so she stayed quiet. "May I touch it?" she asked instead. She felt light-headed at the idea, but she wanted to know what to expect.

"Of course." He kissed the back of her hand and then placed it on his stomach. "Explore as much as you want."

Her hand trailed down his stomach. The little hairs tickled her palm. He allowed her to squeeze and prod him gently, holding still except for the occasional shiver.

"How does it feel?" he asked. "Can you imagine how good it will feel inside you?"

Jinora's light-headedness turned to queasiness. She hadn't decided yet whether she wanted to take Mom's advice and meditate, or whether she wanted to stay aware of everything and see what it was like. He sat down on the bed and pulled her onto his lap, kissing her shoulder and the back of her neck. She could feel his erection rubbing against her hip.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather just play Pai Sho?" she teased, willing her hands and feet to stop sweating. "I haven't lost a game in over ten years."

He laughed at her, which was better than slapping her or bloodbending her, she supposed.

"Seriously, though." She climbed off his lap onto the bed. "Why me? Why my sister?"

He joined her on the bed, still towering over her even on his knees. "Because it's good for my image," he said. He leaned over her, planting his arms on either side of hers. "If I can't have Korra as my wife, I'll have the two most valuable women after her. My two strongest Pai Sho tiles, if you will."

"Well, that makes me feel good about myself," Jinora said. "I'd hoped maybe you'd fallen in love with my wit or my beauty or something. I doubt most girls would find it very romantic to be called a game tile on their wedding night."

"Luckily for me, you're not most girls." He forced his lips into hers, smashing them against her teeth. When he finally pulled back, he said, "You care very little for romance, don't you, Jinora?"

She said nothing. She was still seething from the way he'd kissed her and used her name without permission.

"I'm learning I might as well be upfront with you," Tarrlok said. "You'll figure things out with or without my input. But Jinora?" He slid his thigh between her knees and brought his mouth close to her ear. "Don't ask me questions if you're not sure you'll like the answer."

Their first joining was discordant, their bodies completely out of harmony with each other. Jinora's first instinct was to airbend at the wall so she could blow herself out from under him. Her body tensed, but she didn't do it. She glared into his face, remembering how he'd looked her right in the eyes before draining the blood from Dad and Chief Beifong. Her hands clenched into fists. He hadn't been malicious, he just hadn't cared if Jinora and Ikki had watched their father's gruesome death. All he'd ever cared about was getting his revenge, taking over the city. And now he was going to deflower Jinora, and as soon soon as Ikki came of age, he would do the same to her. Jinora ground her teeth together. As painful as this was, she would rather die than give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She gave him one last hateful look and then closed her eyes.

As Jinora meditated on the rhythm of Tarrlok's panting, her body went as limp and floppy as wet cloth. Her consciousness rushed from the room, returning to Air Temple Island as she remembered it. She sat cross-legged in the meditation pavilion, listening to the birds chirp. She had been eight when they'd meditated alone this day.

"Airbending is the element of freedom," her father said. He was sitting in front of her in an identical pose. "Airbenders can get themselves out of any situation by escaping, not fighting."

"But what if I literally can't escape?" she asked. "What if I'm chained up and locked in a cell?"

"There are more ways to escape than physically running away, Jinora," Dad said. "You have your books, and you have the worlds inside them even when it's too dark to read. And you have your memories. The secret to airbending is knowing that your spirit is always free to go where it pleases, no matter what happens to your physical body."

She tried to hug him, but she was frozen in place. "I love you, Dad. I miss you so much..."

"You're crying."

Jinora opened her eyes and realized she was back in the bridal bed- and that her face was wet and her nose was clogged. She sniffed hard to drain the mucus from her nose and wiped her face. "Yeah, so what?"

Tarrlok sighed. "Hold still. I'll try to finish as fast as I can."

Jinora rolled her still-damp eyes. "No, don't rush on _my_ account, dear husband. It seems like you need the practice as much as I do."

She wrapped her legs around his hips and pulled him closer, hoping she was doing it right. He froze for a moment, hopefully caught off guard by her sudden awesomeness, and then moved faster. Jinora dug her nails into his shoulders and scraped them down his arms, leaving white stripes that oozed drops of blood. She sighed. "People did warn me your age might make it hard for you to consummate our marriage. They said it happens to a lot of men as old as you are."

Tarrlok clasped his hands around her wrists, forcing them into the pillow above her head. He bit her shoulder so hard Jinora thought for one panicked second that he'd suddenly become a cannibal. She grunted and kneed him in the stomach, but that only seemed to encourage him. They wrestled violently for a few seconds, and then Tarrlok collapsed on top of her. His sweat immediately soaked her skin.

"You're infuriating," he said. "I should probably slap some good behavior into you."

She rolled her eyes again and turned her head away. He grabbed her chin and yanked her face back to center position. Still holding her in place, he nudged her mouth open and slid his slimy, dead-animal-flavored tongue over hers. Jinora tried not to gag. After what felt like hours, he finally rolled off of her and inspected the bed underneath her.

"Hm," he said. "I expected at least some blood."

Fear rushed through Jinora, but she tried not to let it show. "Well, I don't know why there wasn't any," she said, her tone irritable. "I've never had sex with anyone else. I've never even kissed anyone on the lips."

He laughed. "I believe you. You were appropriately terrible at both."

Jinora wasn't certain whether that remark stung or made her proud. "Thanks," she finally said. "It was mutual."

He smirked. "We should play Pai Sho," he said. "Tomorrow, perhaps."

"What?" Jinora was sure she'd heard him wrong.

"You need an outlet for your sharp mind," He tucked a pillow under his neck. "You're like I was at that age- too clever for your own good. I'd like to try my hand at a game of Pai Sho against you. Besides, it will keep you out of trouble until your new books get here."

"Yeah, let's play," Jinora said, dropping her head against the pillow. "Tomorrow."

The second she heard him snore, she snuck into her bathroom and started a bath. With the running water drowning out the noise, she cried harder than she ever had in her life. She missed school more than she'd realized she would, she missed Ikki so badly it physically hurt, and this... this whole marriage thing, to Tarrlok, it was pretty permanent. She sank down in the hot water, indulging in a few moments of self-pity.

He was going to get on top of her like that every night for the rest of her life. And he was going to expect her to have conversations with him and eat with him and behave for him. Every. Single. Day. The biggest library in the world couldn't make up for that. She was going to be trapped in this house like a prisoner until the day she died.

Or until the day _he_ died.

Her legs splashed into the water as the idea hit her. Yes, there was definitely a way to salvage her life, and it meant making the world a better place for pretty much everyone. She didn't know if she was brave enough to go through with it, but it gave her hope.

She didn't know when or how, but sooner or later she was going to murder Tarrlok.


	19. Appendix B: The Tale of Pema

The house was painted bright red on the outside. Inside, it was as dark as the back of Pema's eyelids. She set her suitcase on the ground, and it airbended a large cloud of dust. Tarrlok waved the flecks away as he strode in behind her. He went around the little house, pulling up the shades and tying back the curtains to let in the light.

"She's been like this for over a week," he was saying. "I've been lenient with her because I understand that suddenly losing one's sight is bound to be devastating for anyone. People are starting to complain, however. She's Chief Sun's favorite. He's been rather annoyed that she's become so listless since her escape attempt."

Pema barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes. Poor Chief Sun. It must be so hard on him, his favorite whore always drunk or crying over her murdered loved ones and her stolen eyesight.

Tarrlok continued, "Your job, in addition to ensuring that she eats and bathes, is to restore her to as much of her previous self as possible. The last thing I need is a rebellion from the police force because she refuses to cooperate."

"If her spirit is broken, I doubt I'll be able to fix it," Pema said, feeling a surge of protectiveness for Asami. "Maybe you should hire a healer for her, or better yet, hire a completely new whore for Chief Sun and let the poor girl retire already."

Tarrlok's fingers curled around his chin. "I hadn't thought of that, but it does make more sense. Tell me, Pema, which one of your children do you think would be most suitable as her replacement?"

He might as well have slapped her. In fact, she would have preferred it if he had. For a dozen heartbeats, Pema couldn't breathe.

"Fine," she said at last. "You've made your point."

"I wasn't making a point," Tarrlok said. "I simply asked you a hypothetical question. If Asami is too psychologically damaged to please Chief Sun, or if she manages to escape for good, which one of your children would make the best replacement for her? I seem to recall that at least one of your daughters has a similarly... stubborn personality. I think her name is Ikki. Do you think she'd be good at this sort of work, Pema?"

Pema swallowed. "No. She's much too young. They're all too young."

"But if they weren't," Tarrlok persisted. "Just pretend for a moment, please. It would be rude not to answer."

Pema felt like the floor was moving underneath her, like she was suddenly on the ferry to Air Temple Island. That was ludicrous, though. Her home was here now, in this tiny temple to slavery and lust and abuse, with its bars on the windows and its gaps between planks on the floor and its vinegarized-wine perfume. Which of her children could Pema condemn to spend their young life in this awful place with her?

She already knew, if she was being completely truthful. Jinora was the only one who would stand half a chance in one of Tarrlok's brothels, even if she wasn't the oldest. She had always lived more in her daydreams than in reality, which was the most useful skill any indentured prostitute could have, and she had always had the toughest shell of the three children, even before this nightmare. But she was so young still- not quite twelve yet. Pema didn't even know if Jinora had started her period yet. She drew a wavering breath. She shouldn't even have to be thinking about this, deciding which of her children to hand over to him like this! But he tapped his foot, and she knew he wouldn't leave until she'd satisfied him with an answer. He had already taken all of her children from her; this was just his way of reminding her of that.

"Jinora," she finally choked out. "Jinora would be the best."

"That's a pity," Tarrlok said. "I was looking forward to marrying her, but a good leader puts the needs of his people above his own selfish desires. Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to fix the Sato girl after all, and I won't even need another whore. I'm sure that would make everyone involved the happiest, myself included. By the way, Pema, since we're talking about your children... have you had a chance to see them recently?"

"You know I haven't," she snapped. He was, after all, the one who had ensured that she had no access to them, even via letters.

"They're doing rather well at their respective schools," Tarrlok said. His tone was so polite that Pema wondered if he had accidentally gone into 'formal party mode' without realizing it. "Jinora is excelling in her classes, despite her lack of formal schooling up to this point. Ikki and Meelo have turned from savage little ruffians into something a little closer to model children; harsh discipline truly works miracles! I have pictures, if you'd like to-"

Pema grabbed for the photographs. He dangled them out of reach, as if he was taunting a homeless person with a hot loaf of bread.

"Ah, ah, ah," he chided. "You may look but not touch. If I'm satisfied with Asami's improvements in two weeks, they're yours to keep."

He held them in front of Pema's face. Her burning eyes darted between the two, struggling not to waste a precious second by blinking. On her left, Meelo was slumped forward with his thumb in his mouth and his other hand holding his ear. Pema hadn't seen him do that since he was two or three years old. On the right, Jinora stood tall in her school uniform. She was wearing a traditional water tribe betrothal necklace and a scowl, her left arm hugging a book to her stomach. Ikki clung to Jinora's side, arms wrapped tightly around her older sister's waist. She was also wearing a betrothal necklace, but she looked frightened and uncertain compared to Jinora's irritated expression towards the photographer. Tarrlok tucked the photographs away, and Pema pressed her lips together to keep from crying.

"I expect you to be seeing clients within three days, and for your new charge to be seeing them-well, taking care of them at least- within those two weeks," Tarrlok said. "Someone will come by every few days to bring you groceries and other necessities. As before, your salaries will go towards your necessities, bail payment, and fines owed to the state. If you need anything else, such as clothing or makeup, simply inform your delivery person. You may take up to four days off per month, but any days you don't use will be lost at the end of the month. Any questions?"

Pema shook her head.

"Two weeks," he warned, and then left. "Oh, and by the way, you'll also need to tidy the place up," he added before shutting the door behind him.

Pema's shaky legs dumped her on her hands and knees on the dusty wooden floor. It took her nearly ten minutes to calm down enough to stand again. When she could finally walk, she poured herself a glass of water and gulped it down. Taking a deep breath, she approached the bedroom door and knocked.

"Asami?"

There was no answer. Pema pushed open the door and crept in. It was pitch black, and Pema nearly tripped over a half dozen empty bottles strewn across the floor. She could see a figure curled up in the bed, and she thought she recognized the long black tresses. Pema's nose could just pick up the dull scent of oily hair over the tangy bite of ammonia and unwashed skin.

"Asami?" Pema touched the girl's shoulder lightly.

Asami jerked away like Pema had electrocuted her. "Leeb me alone!" she yelped, flapping her arm in Pema's direction. "Dote touch me!"

Pema hastily pulled her hand back. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. It's me, Pema. It's Councilman Tenzin's wife- well, his widow. I'm here to take care of you."

Asami stopped fighting the air, but she edged backwards until her back was pressed against the wall. "Who else is here?"

"No one," Pema said. "It's just me. Chairman Tarrlok was here, but he left."

"You're sure it's just you?"

"Positive."

Asami let out a deep breath that reeked of alcohol, and her body relaxed a little. "Hi. So, uh, is Tarrlok forcing you to be my maid or... something?"

Pema laughed, a little bitterly, because oh, if only her life was that easy. "No, dear. I have the same job as you."

"You're a whore?" Asami rubbed her head. "Hey, me too. Oh... oh, I don't feel so good."

"Do you want me to help you to the toilet?" Pema asked.

"No, no, I can do it myself." Asami stumbled off the bed, knocking over her nightstand in the process. She was wearing underwear and a short cotton night dress, both of which clung wetly to her skin. Tarrlok hadn't been exaggerating about her current condition. She managed to crawl halfway to the bathroom before vomiting up a watery mixture of what smelled like plum wine and bile.

Pema felt a headache coming on, one perhaps strong enough to match the one Asami must be getting. She knelt down and stroked the very outside of Asami's hand with her pinkie. "Sweetie, when was the last time you ate something that didn't have alcohol in it?"

"I dunno," Asami slurred. "What day's it?"

"It's the third. You had your... accident nine days ago."

"Accident," Asami repeated. "Yeah, my 'accident.'" She laughed, and then she cried, and then she curled up on the floor and outright sobbed.

"Asami?" Pema hesitantly put her hand on Asami's upper arm. When it didn't get shaken off, she began rubbing it up and down over Asami's skin. "Asami, sweetie?"

"I want my mom," the teenager wept. "I want to die. I can't see _anything_, I can't even see lights and shadows. I don't even know where I am."

"You're on the floor of your new bedroom in our new house," Pema said. Darn, she was really out of her depth here. Even without such a ridiculous deadline, she was thoroughly overwhelmed by Asami's mental state. "Do you want to take a bath, sweetheart?"

"Don't call me that." Asami swiped at her wet face, trying to dry her eyes. "That's what they kept calling me when-" She heaved again, but nothing came up. "Oh, I want to go home so badly."

"This is home now," Pema said. "Do you want to take a bath?"

Asami nodded. Pema wrapped her hand around Asami's and helped her stand up. They eventually made it to the bathroom, where Pema ran warm water into the tub while Asami fought with her wet clothes. With a little steadying from Pema, Asami stepped into the tub and then dropped down with a splash.

"Do you need anything?" Pema asked.

"Yeah, I could use some more plum wine," Asami said. "My head is killing me."

"You don't need any more wine right now," Pema said firmly. "I'll make you some food and give you some medicine for your head."

Asami groaned. "I'm not hungry. I'm never hungry."

"Well, you should try anyways," Pema said. It almost surprised her how much her "mom" voice was slipping out. "You rest for a minute. I'll be right back."

There was nothing in the cupboard but green tea. Pema found half of a cooked chicken in the ice box, along with a bag rice that didn't appear to have been touched so far. She set the kettle on and dumped the chicken in with the rice and water to heat it all together.

She went back to the bathtub and found that Asami had slipped all the way under the water. Panic commandeered Pema's body. She dove halfway into the tub and dragged Asami up past the surface by her hair. Asami choked and coughed and tried to fight Pema off, but she was alive.

"You're okay," Pema said. "You're going to be just fine."

"No!" Asami screamed. "Just let me drown! I want to die! Let go of me! I'm an adult! Just let me die!"

She had meant to kill herself? Pema slapped the girl on her cheek, which startled the both of them. "How could you be so selfish?" Pema demanded. "How can you even think about such a thing?"

"Because everyone I love is dead." Asami touched the red mark on her cheek. "I'm all alone, and everything hurts so badly, and I'm trapped in this, this black box!" She waved her hands in front of her eyes. "I just need-" Her voice broke. "I need to be with Mako and my parents again. I feel so alone."

"You're not alone, and this is not just about you," Pema said, and she began to cry too. "I desperately need you, Asami. I need you to stay alive and be okay again. Please, if you can't do it for yourself, I'm begging you to do it for me and my children. I will do anything, _anything_ if you'll promise to stay alive for me."

Asami took a deep breath. "Okay," she said finally. "I'll stay alive, at least for the rest of the night. It is night, isn't it?"

"It's four in the afternoon," Pema said.

"Okay, so until I fall asleep and wake back up again," Asami said. "But I make no promises about tomorrow."

"Then we'll handle tomorrow when tomorrow comes," Pema said. "Thank you so much, Asami." She hugged her, soaking the last dry spots on her blouse.

"I'm kind of hungry now," Asami said into her shoulder. "I wouldn't say no to food."

"Oh!" Pema said. "The rice! I hope it's not burning!"

"Go," Asami said. "I promise on my mother's grave that I won't kill myself tonight."

Pema ran back to the kitchen, where the kettle was screeching but the rice was only a little brown on the bottom. She made the makeshift meal as pretty as possible, only remembering Asami's blindness at the end. With a sigh, she grabbed a little sack of pills from her suitcase and returned to the bathroom with the tray.

"Let's get some starches inside of you," Pema said, sitting down next to the tub. "Can you hold a bowl and spoon?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Pema placed the little bowl in one hand and the spoon in the other. "It's just rice with some plain chicken," she said. "I made you some green tea, too. Tell me when you want to take a sip and I'll trade you."

"Thanks." Asami took nervous bites, but she kept everything down. "Okay, I'm thirsty," she said after a few minutes.

Pema handed her the cup of tea. "Oh, and I have some aspirin for your head. Can you take a tablet?"

Asami nodded. Pema took the rice bowl and replaced it with two pills, then handed Asami the tea to wash down the pills. Asami drank the entire cup and then traded again for the bowl.

"Am I getting rice in the water?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter," Pema said. "Just eat, and we'll worry about crumbs later."

Once Asami was finished, she leaned back in the water and stared in the general direction of the ceiling tiles.

"I'm sorry you have to clean up after me," she said after a long silence. "And feed me, and give me baths."

"I don't mind it," Pema said, and she was surprised by how much she meant it. "It's nice to be able to take care of someone."

She used her hands to spoon water over Asami the way she'd done when her children were babies. It wasn't so different after all, except that Asami knew how to talk and hold chopsticks.

"Where are the clients supposed to come, er, visit us?" Pema asked.

"In that room I was in, I guess."

"And we're supposed to sleep in our client rooms, too?"

"Yeah."

"That doesn't work at all." Pema shuddered. "We have this whole huge house. Oh- I'm sorry, dear. I'm not sure if you had a chance to see it or not. There are two bedrooms, perhaps three- I'll know once I get a minute to look around. There's a nice kitchen and sitting area. If you don't mind sharing a room with me, I think we could have our own private space, where clients aren't allowed."

"That would be nice," Asami said. "Have you- I mean, I don't want to assume. Have you been with clients before, or is today your first day?"

Pema tucked a soggy piece of hair behind Asami's ear. "I've been seeing clients for almost a year now. I was made to start as soon as the doctor said my body had recovered from giving birth."

"Oh, okay." Asami set her bowl on the ledge of the bath and splashed warm water over her chest. "I've only been doing it for a few months. I kept telling Tarrlok he could shove his 'arrangement' up his ass until a little after the new year, when I realized I could work on an escape-and-rescue plan better if I was out of jail. But, oh yeah, I asked because I was going to say that it's awful trying to sleep in the same bed you've been entertaining customers in all day and night. Aside from the gross factor it's just... it's hard to sleep like that, and kind of degrading and... traumatizing, I guess."

"It really is, isn't it?" Pema smiled despite the dreadful circumstances. "I'm so incredibly excited to be living with you, Asami. I haven't had much chance to talk to anyone but clients since everything happened. You and I are going to get this whole house all to ourselves every day, or most of every day, at least. We can make it as beautiful and safe-feeling as we want. And we'll sit and drink tea and tell stories to each other in our free time."

Asami's lips curved into a small smile. "I'd like that," she said. "Pema, could you please wash my hair for me?"

"Of course," Pema said.

She sang for the both of them while she scooped water over Asami's hair. The only song she knew was about a little swallow, but Asami seemed to like it. She sang it three times.

When Asami was eventually ready to get out, Pema helped her towel off. She sang her song once more when she saw Asami's face clench with the panic of some terrible memory. And when Asami was dressed in a new, clean nightshirt, Pema crawled into bed with her and held her while she napped, pretending all the while that the warmth in her arms was one of her babies.

0~0~0  
Pema spent the next two days caring for Asami and cleaning the house. She kept her errand boy busy fetching groceries, then cleaning supplies, then linens, then rugs, and then the other groceries she'd forgotten to ask for the first time. Asami slept often and at odd hours; Pema wondered if her brain was confused by the constant darkness. By the time Pema's three day deadline arrived, she'd transformed the drafty old house into a cozy home.

They still needed a system for Asami, however. Pema kept a list of ideas in her little notebook. When Asami walked (swearingly) into the back of the new sofa, Pema hung red streamers from the ceiling near each piece of furniture and tied little bells to the end of each one. When Asami complained that she couldn't even wash her own face, Pema bought bottles in distinctly different shapes so it would be easy to find the face soap by touch alone. Foods that required no cooking, like fruit and pre-boiled eggs, lived in the front left section of the icebox.

Asami spoke of killing herself at least twice a day. When Pema had the time and energy, she would stop whatever she was doing and sit and hold Asami's hands, and they would talk until Asami's pulse slowed down and the pain left her voice. When Pema couldn't do that, she would simply tuck Asami into bed with a bottle of plum wine and beg her to hold off for at least one day. Asami always promised, and by the fifth day, she was only mentioning it once a day. She didn't mention it at all on day ten.

On day eleven, Chief Sun telephoned to make an appoint for the next day, and Asami announced that she would sooner kill herself than see clients ever again.

"Please," Pema begged. "You don't understand. I'll do whatever you need me to, but killing yourself is not an option, and Tarrlok won't let you get away with not seeing clients."

"Is he going to do something horrible to you if I don't?" Asami asked.

Pema could only draw in a jerky breath in response. She was spending all her energy trying not to imagine Jinora in bed with one of the metalbending police officers.

"I don't want that at all, I just-" Asami gulped. "I don't think I can do it. Not with Chief Sun, for sure. He was there, Pema. He was on the scene when I went blind. I'm pretty sure he was one of the men who raped me right afterwards."

"You don't have to start with Chief Sun," Pema promised. "We'll start with a different client. Maybe we can convince a few of the nicer officers to let us do a two-woman show for them today. Men like that a lot. You can ease your way back into it. I'll stay with you the whole time. I'll stay with you tomorrow, if you need me to. Just... please, try. For me. I know it's a lot to ask."

Asami nodded, her brow furrowing. "I'll try," she promised. "I'll try as hard as I possibly can."

Pema's only client for the day was Officer Feng, who had been a young member of Korra's White Lotus squad. He had always been perfectly pleasant to Pema, but she despised looking at him, especially when he was naked underneath her. Seeing him always left homesick pangs in her gut. On that day, however, she was grateful for him. He accepted their offer for a free two-hour, two-woman appointment with all the eagerness Pema had expected from any hormonal teenage boy, particularly when he found out the purpose was to help Asami relax during sex again. And so Pema poured Asami a single glass of the precious plum wine, and the three of them retired to the customer bedroom.

Officer Feng leaned back in the chair and watched while Pema warmed Asami up with a massage.

"You're completely safe," Pema murmured. "Officer Feng and I will stop right away if you ask us to."

"I know," Asami said. She wiped her hands on the sheet underneath her.

Pema rubbed Asami down with jasmine-scented lotion, trying to ease the tension out of every muscle. "I'll be right here the whole time," she said.

"I know."

"I just want you to feel safe." Pema massaged her hands over each other to rub the last bits of lotion in. She kissed Asami on the cheek. "I'm going to kiss you from head to toe now," she said, dragging two fingers down Asami's other cheek. "I want you to feel relaxed." She pressed her lips against Asami's jaw, then neck, then chest. By the time she began kissing underneath Asami's left breast, Feng had seated himself closer to the bed to watch. Pema kept kissing downwards, drawing little gasps from both Asami and Feng as she went.

When Asami was suitably wet, Pema lay down next to her. "Can Officer Feng get on the bed now?" she asked Asami.

Asami nodded. Feng climbed on top of her, stroking her hair. Asami's breathing grew faster and louder. Pema interlocked her fingers with Asami's and kissed her soft, red lips.

"You're so tough," Pema murmured. "You're like a platinum fortress, my Asami."

"I am?" Asami asked. Her hands were soaking Pema's, so slick with sweat that every squeak of the bed threatened to shake apart their grasp.

"Most definitely," Pema said. "A dozen metalbenders tried to bend you to their will, but you still refuse to submit. I admire you so much."

Asami's grip became a little stronger. "Uh, I don't know where you've been the past week and a half, Pema, but they definitely broke me."

"No." Pema kissed the little cleft just before Asami's ear. "If they'd defeated you, you'd be dead. You're scratched right now, dented maybe, but completely unbent. You're the only one with the power to break you, Asami. Not everyone is that lucky."

Asami nodded. She seemed to fall into a trance, although she remained aware enough to smile and nod or shake her head when Officer Feng's asked her questions. After he finished a few minutes later, Asami sat up and tucked her hair back into place while he dressed.

"You wouldn't happen to have a cigarette, would you?" she asked.

Officer Feng lit one for her, bowed, and then excused himself.

"That could have been worse," Asami said. "Right?"

"Absolutely." Pema placed the ashtray from the nightstand into Asami's other hand. "You did so much better than I expected. Just try not to set the bed on fire with that cigarette, dear."

Asami moved around all that night, or at least enough to wake Pema several times. Pema finally got tired of having her sleep interrupted, so she draped her arm and leg over Asami and pulled her close. She held her tight, Asami's face buried in Pema's bosom, until she felt Asami's vibrating muscles go still. The sound of Asami's deep, steady breathing lulled Pema back to sleep a few moments later.

Neither of them felt like eating breakfast the next morning. Chief Sun had said he'd be by during his lunch hour, which Asami thought would probably be a little after noon. Pema washed and styled Asami's hair, then spent a little extra time doing both of their makeup.

"No eye stuff today," Asami said. "I don't want it to be super obvious if I start crying. He's bad enough when I'm throwing back insults."

Pema kissed Asami's forehead and applied a red lip stain for her instead of mascara. "Do you want me to stay with you while he's here?"

"No." Asami rubbed her lips together. "Don't take it the wrong way; I just need to stay one-hundred percent focused on him."

Shortly before noon, Asami sat straight up in her chair and set her teacup on the side table. Chief Sun stepped in a few seconds later, and Asami rose without Pema saying a word. The two disappeared to the bedroom, and Pema couldn't quite stop herself from sitting outside the door with one ear pressed to the crack.

"Good to see you again," Chief Sun said.

"I wish I could say the same," Asami replied. "Actually, that's a lie. I'd rather stay blind than ever see your face again."

Chief Sun laughed. "You seem more like yourself."

"Unfortunately, I _can_ say the same for you in that regard."

There was a loud creak from the bed, like one or both of them had just lain down on it.

"You know how this works," Chief Sun said. "Take off your clothes."

"Yeah? Make me. I don't feel like this right now."

There was a sound like fabric being rustled together.

"Much better," said Chief Sun. "Am I going to have to use the ropes on you this time? I think I should."

"Whatever. Just get it over with."

There were only grunts for a few moments. Pema picked at her nails, willing her heart to beat more slowly.

"It's too bad your father's not around to see this," Chief Sun said.

"It's too bad you don't even know who your father is," Asami shot back. "But if I ever service another guy with such a pathetically-sized dick, I'll give you a call. Maybe the two of you can have a family reunion."

"No need to be a brat, Asami. I'm just saying that you make a really good whore."

"Not as good as your mom," was the reply.

There was a smack. Asami made a hissing sound, but then she laughed.

"Oh, ouch, I hit a nerve, huh?" she said. "Poor baby. Was your mom really a whore? I can go back to making jokes about your tiny dick, if you'd prefer. You know, I bet if your mom was a whore like me, she did it because your father was as bad in bed as you are."

"And that's my cue to put your mouth to better use," Chief Sun said.

"Hey, get your hand the fuck out of my hair!"

"Open your mouth. I said, open-"

Pema rested her forehead on her knee. She didn't want to listen to the coughing and gagging sounds Asami was making, whether they were dramatized or not. The deep rumble of Chief Sun's voice a few minutes later made her press her ear to the door again.

"You know you enjoy it. You don't have to pretend."

"As if!" Asami said. "I've had street gruel that tasted better, you slimeball. I'd rather eat skunk-fish out of a dead body!"

"Careful, Asami. I could tell Tarrlok you've been disrespectful to me."

Asami laughed. "That's the whole reason you like me. But sure, please, go tell him I've been disrespectful. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll fire me."

Chief Sun scoffed. "But you're so _good_ at getting on your hands and knees and letting men fuck you. What else would you possibly do?"

"I may be good at it, but the pay sucks, I don't get enough vacation days, and I fucking hate interacting with people for a living. And why are you still here? You had your fun. Get out of my fucking brothel, you perverted son of a whore!"

He must have slapped her, based on the sound she made, but nonetheless his footsteps groaned towards the door. Pema scurried out of the way and made herself look busy in the kitchen. Chief Sun walked straight to the door, only acknowledging Pema with a wink. The second he was out of sight, Pema darted back to the bedroom.

Asami was still sitting on the bed. Her hair was tangled, her makeup was smudged, her lip was bleeding, and her hands were still tied behind her back, but she looked... determined.

"It's over." Her shoulders drooped. "I can't believe it's finally over. When I heard his boots outside, I didn't think I was going to make it."

"I told you, you're my platinum little swallow." Pema found the knife Asami always kept under the pillow and cut the ropes. "You're unbendable. I listened a little while he was in there with you. You were so amazing, Asami. I think you really kicked his bottom, verbally! I was so proud of you."

"Yeah, I was pretty great," Asami said. "A switch sort of flipped in my head, and it was easy for me to pretend to be who I was before- well. Before Tarrlok blinded me."

Pema sat down next to Asami and pulled her into a gentle hug. "I didn't schedule any other clients for today. I thought you might need some time to recover. What do you want to do?"

"I want to take a bath," Asami said. "No, first I want to have a cigarette. Then I want to take a bath and drink a glass of plum wine. And then I want to cook a delicious dinner with you, and then I want to eat the really delicious dinner with you, and then I want to get extremely, incredibly drunk while you rub my back and sing to me again."

Asami's tough front collapsed, and Pema squeezed tighter and rocked them both back and forth in the bed while Asami sobbed. "My sweet little Asami," she said. "We'll do whatever you want tonight. Cry it all out, and when you're done, I'll bring you that cigarette."

0~0~0  
Tarrlok arrived three days later, a parchment envelope in hand. He invited himself in and sat down in one of the armchairs.

"Well? Aren't you going to offer me tea?" Tarrlok gave Pema an expectant look. "It's what any good hostess would do."

Pema turned and walked into the kitchen so he couldn't see the annoyance on her face. "My apologies, Chairman," she said. "Most people don't come here for tea."

"Yes, that's what I'm here to discuss with you," he said. "That was very resourceful of you, having Asami entertain clients with you. I overheard some officers at Narook's raving about their amazing experience with the two of you at once. I would never have come up with anything quite as clever."

_That's because you can't think about anyone's well-being except your own,_ Pema thought as she put the kettle on. Aloud, she said, "Thank you."

"Please, come sit down while the water boils," Tarrlok said.

Pema did as she was told.

"I believe we had an arrangement," Tarrlok continued. "As I said, the officers have nothing but good things to say about you and Asami both, and Chief Sun personally came to my office to thank me for 'returning the fire' to his favorite whore. As promised, here are the pictures of your children. The bracelet is from your son." He handed her the envelope.

"Thank you." She held it close, but she didn't open it.

"Aren't you dying to see what's in there?" Tarrlok asked. He was watching her face carefully.

Pema forced a smile. "It would be rude to open mail in front of a guest, especially one as important as the chairman," she said. "Please, let me get the tea for you."

"No, thank you," he said, standing up. "I've actually changed my mind about the tea after all. Have a good day, Pema."

"You as well, Chairman Tarrlok."

It seemed to take him forever to reach the front door. As soon as he was gone, Pema ran into her real bedroom. She closed the door softly, careful not to wake Asami, and lit the lamp. At least Asami wouldn't be bothered by the light. Pema dumped the envelope on her dressing table.

She knew right away, in that instinctual way that mothers know things about their own children, that the red and yellow beads Meelo had strung together weren't meant to be a bracelet. Where Tarrlok had seen frivolous jewelry, Pema recognized prayer beads. There were 23 beads, which wasn't exactly the traditional number, but Meelo probably didn't even realize that the number of beads meant anything important. She didn't know whether this was his way of telling her he was safe and practicing his spiritual exercises, or if he just wanted to prove that he still remembered her, prayer beads and all. She didn't care. She clutched the beads tightly in her left hand and unfolded the letter.

_Dear Mom,  
How are you? We miss you so much. Ikki and I are doing okay. In case you didn't get all of my other letters, I will try to talk about everything. School is very different from what we're used to, but I caught onto things right away, and Ikki is getting better at it every day. We have plenty of food to eat, and we're both in the same dormitory. I love all of my classes, except for etiquette and embroidery. My favorite classes are poetry and history. I'm making top marks in all my classes, even the ones I dislike. This term, Ikki is making excellent marks in reading, art, and music. I have been working with her in reading, so that's why she has gotten so much better. She does okay in dance, but it's hard for her to do the romantic, grownup dancing instead of bouncing around and doing lots of airbending twirls. I've hardly had any nightmares all month, and Ikki is having fewer and fewer of those episodes I wrote you about last year, where she cries so hard she can't breathe and her skin goes numb. We are both doing quite well and hope to see you before very long._

_There are no boys at our school, so Meelo is at a different one. We haven't seen him so far. Are we coming home for summer break? Ikki is convinced we are, but I told her we'll probably be signed up for summer classes so we can finish early and marry Chairman Tarrlok sooner. He says you aren't in jail anymore. I hope that's true. I told Ikki it is. I hope you got my other letters and just weren't allowed to write back in jail. Maybe if you're out, you can write back to us. I understand if you can't, though. We both understand._

_Ikki says, "Tell Mom I love her and miss her and can't wait to see her again and I hope the baby is healthy. Oh, and tell her that I'm making her a painting in art class and I'm going to find a way to mail it to her." We think about you often, and we pray for you and Meelo and the baby when we meditate in bed at night. We know you do the same for us._

_Love From Both of Us,  
-Jinora and Ikki_

They had each signed it, Jinora in elegant, flourishing calligraphy and Ikki in block figures drawn in pencil. Pema hugged the letter and then made wet spots on it with tears and kisses. She pinned the pictures and letter on her vanity mirror so she could see them every morning when she styled her hair and makeup for her clients. She tucked the prayer beads under her pillow, knowing she would draw as much comfort from having them there as Asami did from her knife.

From the kitchen, the kettle began to shriek. Pema took a deep breath, checked her reflection in the mirror, and went to make some tea.


End file.
